Egypt Museum ancient Egypt art culture and history

Statue of King Thutmose III

Statue of Thutmose III

This greywacke statue of Thutmose III was found in the Karnak Cachette in 1904. With the legs below the knees missing, the statue measures at 90cm tall. The Karnak Cachette was discovered by Gaston Maspero in 1903 and excavated by Georges Legrain between 1903 and 1907. It was a treasure trove of finds, with over...

Statuette of Thoth as Ibis bird. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. INV 10073

Statuette of Thoth as an Ibis bird

A statuette of the god Thoth depicted as an ibis. The body of this statuette is made of wood, which was covered with fine stucco. The head with the atef crown, the neck, the tail feathers and the legs are made of silver. The eyes are in stucco with black glass. Thoth, as the embodiment...

The Kadesh Treaty (Hittite version)

Battle of Kadesh

The battle of Kadesh is one of the world’s largest chariot battles, fought beside the Orontes River, King Ramesses II sought to wrest Syria from the Hittites and recapture the Hittite-held city of Kadesh. There was a day of carnage as some 5,000 chariots charged into the fray, but no outright victor.  The Kadesh Treaty...

Pectoral of Tutankhamun with Winged Scarab

Pectoral of Tutankhamun with Winged Scarab

In this exquisite pectoral of Tutankhamun, a winged, large scarab beetle riding on a sacred barque and flanked by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys with their arms outstretched as a sign of protection. The scarab serves a double function: as a heart scarab and as the ba of the sun god lighting the way to...

The Senet Game of Imenmes

The Senet Game of Imenmes

The Senet Game board of Imenmes who was an ancient Egyptian official, who was ‘Overseer of the Cattle of Amun’.  From the New Kingdom onward, the track for the game of Senet was usually engraved on the surface of a wooden box featuring a drawer for the playing pieces, while in previous periods the game...

Model of a Sailing Boat

Model of a Sailing Boat

A middle kingdom wooden model of a sailing boat with the pilot in the bow and the owner resting under a canopy. Boats were the commonest type of funerary models placed in tombs during the Middle Kingdom. They provided the dead person with the magical means of traveling along the waterways of the Underworld. All...

Pectoral of King Amenemhat III

Pectoral of Amenemhat III

A 12th dynasty Egyptian Middle Kingdom pectoral belonging to princess Mereret, the daughter of king Senusret III and sister of king Amenemhat III. The pectoral shows the cartouche or royal name of king Amenemhat III and depicts this king triumphantly defeating his enemies. “The king himself appears on either side in a stance familiar to...

Diadem of Princess Khenmet

Diadem of Princess Khenmet

A gold diadem of Princess Khenmet, possibly daughter of King Amenemhat II. She is mainly known from her unrobbed tomb containing a set of outstanding personal adornments. This masterpiece was found in the tomb of Khnemet and her sister Princess Ita in Dahshur. The crown is made of a network of interlaced gold wires that entangle...

Guardians of the Underworld bearing knives

Guardians of the Underworld bearing knives

Taken from Spell 144 of the ‘Book of the Dead’, they were the keepers of the gates of the Underworld, menacing the enemies of order with their sharpened knives. “Egyptians were probably the first to be aware of the nobility inherent in the human form and to express it in art. One can sense the...

Ceremonial dagger of King Ahmose I

Ceremonial Dagger of Ahmose I

Along with its sheath, this ceremonial dagger was a royal gift from king Ahmose to his mother Ahhotep, in whose burial it was discovered. The blade decorated with a typically Aegean technique but Egyptian iconography, bears the titulary of the king on one side and a hunting scene on the other side. Being a gift...