This golden strainer from Bubastis is intended for a wine service, removing sediment from the beverage as it is poured out of jugs, jars or flasks into bowls, goblets or situlae for drinking. The strainer indicates that most if not all of the Tell Basta vessels belonged to just such a wine service, certainly a...
This bronze statuette depicts Ptah, the Chief god of Memphis, patron of craftsmen and architects. In the Memphis triad, he is the husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertem. He was also regarded as the father of the sage Imhotep. A statue like this would have been housed in a wooden shrine; when the...
Atjema is standing with his left foot forward, as if walking. His arms are held close to his sides, and, typically, he has cylindrical object in his hands. A man is one of the classic Old Kingdom poses is depicted in this large statue with well-preserved colors. The spaces between his torso and arms and...
The Head of Nefertem (also known as the Head from the Lotus Bloom or Tutankhamun as the Sun God). An unusual and appealing small head that is a masterpiece; it was found by Howard Carter at the entrance to the Tomb of Tutankhamun. The head is that of the king tut with very beautiful features,...
Decorations show scenes from the Amduat or “Book of What is in the Underworld”, detail of a wall carving in the second corridor of the Tomb of Ramesses IX (KV6). “Amduat (What is in the Netherworld) was used in Ancient Egypt as a generic name for descriptions of the netherworld, but in modern Egyptology is reserved...
Molded faience amulet in the form of Nefertem or Nefertum, he is often defined as the god of perfumes but this association is secondary. Nefertem was, in fact, first and foremost, the young god of the lotus bud that emerged from the primordial waters, according to the Egyptian myth, and from which the sun was...
The ancient Egyptian mummy, coffin and cartonnage mask of Shep en-Mut were donated to the museum in 1897. The decoration and inscriptions show she was a married woman, and the daughter of NesAmenempit, who is described as a ‘carrier of the milk-jar’. Cartonnage masks were an integral part of ancient Egyptian funerary practices. These masks...
The Usekh collar of Princess Neferuptah was made of gold, carnelian, feldspar, and fired glass paste (faience). Two smaller chains of beads are attached to the falcons, leading to a counterpoise, which also bears the image of a falcon, with further horizontal rows of beads hanging from it. At the bottom of the collar, teardrop...
The coffin of Khonsu was found in the Tomb of Sennedjem (TT1), Khonsu’s father, at Deir el-Medina, West Thebes. This wooden coffin bears decoration related to Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead on its long sides. On one side Anubis can be seen mummifying the body of Osiris (with whom the deceased is...
The frame of this ceremonial chariot is made of wood. The cabin is decorated with golden spirals, with cartouches of Tutankhamun at the top. This is one of six dismantled chariots discovered in the antechamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The wheel was known in ancient Egypt as early as the Old Kingdom, but the horse-drawn chariot...
