Towards the end of the 20th Dynasty, around 1155 B.C., one of Ancient Egypt’s most powerful rulers, Ramesses III, became the victim of an extraordinary palace conspiracy. The plot, now known as the Harem Conspiracy, was intended not merely to assassinate the king, but to alter the royal succession. At its centre stood Tiye, one...
Did an Egyptian prince conspire to murder his own father? And could a mysterious mummy, its mouth stretched wide in an eternal, silent scream, be all that remains of him? Perhaps the most unsettling figure in the assassination plot of Ramesses III known as the “Harem Conspiracy” is the young man commonly called the Screaming...
There are some faces from Ancient Egypt that seem determined not to be forgotten. Among them is that of a young man who died more than 3,000 years ago, his head thrown back, his mouth gaping open, and his features contorted into an expression that has disturbed and fascinated generations of observers. Known to Egyptologists...
Among the beautifully illustrated funerary manuscripts to survive from Ancient Egypt is the Book of the Dead belonging to Anhay (also known as Anhai), a woman who lived during the later New Kingdom. With its delicate figures, colourful divine imagery and enchanting landscapes of the hereafter, the papyrus offers a remarkable glimpse into the Ancient...
With only a few deft strokes of red and black ink, an Ancient Egyptian artist caught the elegant sweep of a horse in motion. Drawn upon a fragment of limestone, this lively study belongs to the Ramesside Period, c. 1300–1080 B.C., when the horse had become a familiar symbol of speed, prestige and royal power...
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...
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,...
This striking painting shows multiple black jackal figures, often interpreted as manifestations of Anubis or related necropolis deities, facing the foreman Inherkhau. Each jackal wears a red ribboned collar and stands poised, ears alert and snouts extended in a supernatural confrontation. The tripartite representation may symbolise divine guardianship over all regions of the necropolis; east,...
In a remarkable discovery that bridges the ancient lands of the Nile and the Levant, archaeologists in southern Jordan have uncovered a hieroglyphic inscription bearing the royal cartouche of Pharaoh Ramesses III, who reigned from 1186-1155 B.C. This is the first known instance of Ramesses III’s cartouche being found within the borders of modern Jordan,...
Inherkhau was the ‘Foreman of the Lord of the Two Lands in the Place of Truth’ during the reigns of Ramesses III and Ramesses IV, c. 1186–1149 B.C. In this scene, depicted upon one of the walls of his tomb (TT359), we behold Inherkhau seated alongside his wife and four children, receiving offerings in tribute....
