This small wooden statuette represents Taweret, whose name means “the Great One,” a powerful household deity revered for her protection of women and children. Her composite form (hippopotamus body, crocodile back and tail, and leonine limbs) draws upon some of the most formidable creatures of the Nile, each known for its fierce defence of its...
Irynefer was a workman of the royal necropolis at Deir el-Medina, the famous village that housed the craftsmen responsible for cutting and decorating the tombs of the kings in the Valley of the Kings. His title, “Servant in the Place of Truth” (Egyptian: sḏm-ꜥš m st mꜣꜥt), was the formal designation given to these elite...
In this luminous tableau from the sepulchral chambers of King Seti I, the sun god Ra appears in his nocturnal guise; not as the blazing daytime disc, but as the ram-headed lord of the night boat, gliding steadily through the dark waters of the Duat. Here he stands within the solar barque, poised with calm...
In the long reign of Ramesses II (between 1279 and 1213 B.C.), devotion could be as grand as a temple façade or as humble as a handheld shrine. This charming fragment, now housed in The Met (90.6.1), once formed part of a larger votive statue crafted by an official of the king. In Ancient Egypt,...
This colossal statue of Ramesses II, also known as the illustrious Ramesses the Great (c. 1279–1213 B.C.), is hewn from radiant red granite quarried at Aswan. It was unearthed in 1820 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Caviglia at Mit Rahina, ancient Memphis, where it once stood proudly on the southern flank of the Temple...
This finely carved diorite fragment once formed a full depiction Amun within a triad statue depicting him alongside his consort, the goddess Mut, and King Seti I. The composition would almost certainly have shown the king standing between the divine pair, as was customary in Ancient Egyptian art. In such triads, the pharaoh’s position between...
This gold band, once part of the neck of a silver vessel, offers a tantalising glimpse into the ritual and mythological world of Ancient Egypt during the reign of Ramesses II or shortly thereafter (circa 1279–1213 B.C.). Found at Tell Basta (ancient Bubastis) within the Temple of Bastet, the fragment bears rich symbolic decoration despite...
A reminder that even in the shadow of eternity, the craftsmen of Thebes found time for life’s more earthly pleasures, this playful and rather daring sketch from the workmen’s village captures a rare glimpse into the more private humour of Ancient Egyptian life. Painted swiftly in black ink, it shows a man and woman engaged...
This limestone stela belonged to Pashed, one of the craftsmen of Deir el-Medina, the village whose inhabitants built and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It is an example of what scholars call an akh iqer en Re, literally, “the excellent spirit of Re”. Such stelae were placed in domestic shrines,...
Ever seen an ancient meme? This limestone sketch (Musée du Louvre Museum. E 32954) from Deir el-Medina might just be one! Drawn over 3,000 years ago (c. 1295–1069 B.C.) by an artisan of the royal tomb-builders’ village depicts a cat standing upright, holding or offering a vase and a lotus flower to another seated cat,...
