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...
The goddess Taweret is depicted with pendulous breasts and swollen belly, which recalls the image of a pregnant woman. The goddess usually wears a female wig that can be topped with a feathered headdress, a modius (a cylinder-shaped headdress with a flat end), or with horns and a sun disc. Another recurring element is the...
This wooden statuette of a woman depicting her wears a wig with a wreath of leaves and a lotus flower on her forehead. In her left hand she holds a sistrum (a rattle used in the cult of female deities), whose handle only is preserved. The right arm, which was carved separately and attached with...
A bronze Khopesh sword inscribed with the cartouches of King Ramesses II. The Khopesh is an Egyptian sickle-sword that evolved from battle axes. The blunted edge of the weapon’s tip also served as an effective bludgeon, as well as a hook. This Khopesh sword is made of bronze with a typical length of 57.5 cm....
This finely carved bust of Ramesses II bears a striking resemblance to a statue of the pharaoh housed in the Egyptian Museum in Turin. However, in contrast to the Turin figure (Cat. 1380), which is adorned with the regal Blue Khepresh Crown, the Cairo sculpture features a shoulder-length, blunt-cut wig with a distinctive fringe and...
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 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....
When Re was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead, and through it became the god of the dead as well. The union of the gods Re and Osiris (in the guise of a ram-headed mummy which wears the sun’s disk between its horizontal, corkscrew horns). The “Amduat”, like the...
Detail of a wall relief depicting Osiris and Isis in the Temple of Seti I in Abydos, the cult center of Osiris, lord of the dead. The necropolis is a place of pilgrimage and burial and at least ten temples were originally constructed there. Among those ten temples, three remain that are of special note. These...
Fragment of a limestone bas relief depicting female dancers and musicians beat tambourines and clapsticks before approaching funeral procession. “In ancient Egyptian society a woman was accorded legal rights equal to those of a man from the same social class and had the same expectation of a life after death… Pharaonic Egypt was not an...
