18th Dynasty

Cult Stele of King Ahmose

Cult Stele of King Ahmose

This unique stele commemorates the deceased ruler Ahmose (1539-1515 BC), who inaugurated the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom. The relief style places the stele’s manufacture later in the reign of Tutankhamun (1332–1323 BC). At this time, royal cults were reinstated after the reign of Akhenaten, who wiped out the cults of other gods in...

18th Dynasty Wig

This wig made of human hair, also referred to as a “double/duplex wig” due to the two contrasting styles in one piece, would have been worn by a male of elite status in New Kingdom Egyptian society and was discovered in Thebes. The wig is made of real human hair, plaited and tousled, and its...

Steatite Tiye

Made of glazed steatite, often known as soapstone, and at 29cm tall, this figurine shows Queen Tiye in full royal regalia. She is pictured wearing the double-plume crown, with a triple uraeus upon a falcon-winged headpiece cascading over her extravagant and expansive wig. A finely detailed usekh collar is worn around her neck and rests...

Lady Tjepu

Lady Tjepu

One of the most remarkable paintings to survive from ancient Egypt, this depiction of the noblewoman Tjepu came from a tomb built for her son Nebamun and a sculptor named Ipuky. Egyptian artists usually did not depict individuals as they truly looked, but rather as eternally youthful, lavishly dressed, and in an attitude of repose....

Mummified Dog

This mummy of a dog was discovered besides the mummy of a baboon within Tomb KV50, near King Amenhotep II’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Edward R. Ayrton unearthed Tomb KV50, within the Valley of the Kings, in 1906 while excavating on behalf of Theodore M. Davis. The tomb is part of the...

Nebamun’s pool

Nebamun was a middle-ranking official “scribe and grain accountant” during the period of the New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt. He is thought to have lived ca. 1350 BC and worked at the vast temple complex near Thebes, where the state-god Amun was worshiped. His name was translated as “My Lord is Amun”, and his association...

Yellow Akhenaten

This statue depicts a king, almost certainly Akhenaten, and is made from yellow limestone. The king holds the heqa scepter (crook and flail), and is seated upon a cushioned throne, wearing a pleated linen kilt, and a striped nemes headdress with the royal insignia of a uraeus upon the centre of his forehead. Often overlooked...

King’s Ba Bird

The Ba is a part of a person’s non-physical spiritual nature. After death, the Ba might leave the tomb, but it had to return to the tomb on a regular basis to reconnect with the mummy. The Ba was frequently shown as a bird with a human head, and occasionally with human arms. This Ba...

Royal Scribe Méniou

This fragmentary limestone bust depicts the Royal Scribe, Méniou. Traces of pigment remain of black upon the wig, eyes and brows, giving this fragmentary piece a striking appearance, despite its disfigurement. Méniou wears an elaborate usekh collar and pleated linen tunic, indicating his status in society. His wig is shoulder-length and finely detailed with intricate...

Face of Amenhotep II

Face of Amenhotep II

The faces on most statues of Amenhotep II differ slightly from those of his two immediate predecessors. Compared with the sculpture of Thutmose III or Hatshepsut exhibited nearby, for example, this statue’s face is a little longer, the eyes somewhat narrower, the brows a bit straighter, the nose slightly thicker, and the mouth less curved....