Granite is extremely hard, but the sculptor of this statue was able to give the king’s plump face and small features a softly natural quality, perhaps suggesting the subject’s actual appearance rather than an idealized version. Originally, this fragment surmounted an oversize figure, achieving the same monumental quality as the pyramids being built at this...
This statue of Khasekhemwy, last king of the 2nd Dynasty of Egypt, enthroned with conquered foes incised around the base, is the oldest surviving stone royal sculpture from ancient Egypt. The king is wearing the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt and is wrapped in a long robe with long sleeves associated with the heb-sed...
This bust of Ramesses II closely resembles a statue of Ramesses in the Egyptian Museum of Turin. However, the Cairo piece wears a long wig, rather than the Blue Khepresh Crown worn by the Turin statue (Cat. 1380). A uraeus can be seen at the king’s forehead, and he is shown with a young face,...
The diadem of princess Khenmet is formed of a series of horizontal and vertical decorations made of gold with inlays of semiprecious stones and glass paste. Each horizontal element is composed of a rosette flanked by two bell-shaped flowers heavily inlaid with carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli. This decoration is repeated eight times. Two delicate...
These six board game pieces were associated with a game called ‘Mehen’ coil, because it was played on a circular limestone board that took the form of a coiled snake, its skin divided into squares. Three playing pieces represent recumbent lions, and three recumbent lionesses. The game of the snake, or Mehen, was a board...
The Ebers Papyrus is written in hieratic Egyptian writing and represents the most extensive and best-preserved record of ancient Egyptian medicine known. An ancient Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal knowledge combining herbal remedies with magic spells. Among the oldest and most important medical papyri of ancient Egypt. The scroll contains some 700 magical formulas and folk...
A Wall painting from the Tomb of Seti I (KV17) depicting the the journey of the sun god Amun-Re in his ram-headed form, standing in his solar barque, detail from the ‘Book of Gates’. The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. It narrates the passage of a...
This is one of the couches of King Tutankhamun. It is in the form of the goddess Mehet-weret, the cow goddess of the sky whose name means “great flood”. Three ritual funerary couches were found in the antechamber of Tutankhamun. They are made of stuccoed gilded wood in the form of sacred animals whose eyes...
The central feature of this pectoral is a lapis lazuli scarab pushing the sun-disc with its front legs, while the rear legs hold the cartouche of King Amenemope. To either side, the goddesses Isis and Nephthys protect him. At the bottom of the pectoral an inscription provides the name of the king. The frame of the...
This ostracon depicting a female musician lute player, wearing a broad collar and holding a musical instrument that is functionally close to a modern lute. This pose is common in tomb scenes. The grace and beauty of the musician were caught with a few deft strokes of a master’s brush. The woman is facing left....
