Amarna

Akhenaten Sacrificing Duck to Aten

Relief of Akhenaten Sacrificing Duck to Aten

On this block from a temple relief, Akhenaten, recognizable by his elongated features, holds a duck toward the Aten. With one hand he wrings the bird’s neck before offering it to the god. In this relief, the artist has cut the outlines of the figures into the surface in a technique called sunk relief. Sunk...

Colossal of King Akhenaten

Colossal Statue of King Akhenaten

A colossal statue that represents Akhenaten standing with his arms folded, holding the flail and heka scepters. He is depicted with his particular realistic features; long face, narrow eyes, the long protruding chin, and the fleshy lips. The king is shown naked, without any distinctive sexual organ, which is thought, by some Egyptologists to represent...

Aten cartouche

Aten Cartouche Amulet

Amulet in the shape of a cartouche. The glaze is a deep cobalt blue. Two holes at either end enter on the edge and exit on the back of the amulet near the edge. The cartouche is one of the two cartouches used for the Aten and is translated: Ra-Horakhty lives, rejoicing in the horizon....

Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 26.7.767

Finger Ring of Akhenaten and Nefertiti

This gold ring of Akhenaten and Nefertiti was found at Tell el-Amarna. The hieroglyphs may be read as an ideogram. The two seated figures are probably Akhenaten (left) and Nefertiti (right) as the deities Shu (air as indicated by the feather he holds) and Tefnut (moisture). They were father and mother of the earth and...

Portrait of Queen Nefertiti

Portrait of Nefertiti

This relief portrait of Queen Nefertiti comes from a short end of a talatat, a limestone block of standardized size used during the Amarna Period in the building of the Aten temples at Karnak and Akhetaten. The standardized size and their small weight made construction more efficient. The term talatat is most likely derived from...

Limestone fragmentary stele with Akhenaten

Fragmentary stele of Akhenaten

In this stele, Akhenaten is slouched on a low-backed, cushioned chair with side struts in the form of the ancient royal symbol for the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, which is partly obscured by the long sash of his pleated kilt. The Aten disk was above him, in the center of the stele. The...

Cartouches of the god Aten

Cartouches of Aten

This block of crystalline limestone once graced the railing of a stairway in a temple of the god Aten. It is in the form of a double cartouche, which usually enclosed the name of the king. In this relief instead, the cartouches contain the names of the sun disk Aten, the one god of king...

Queen Nefertiti Kissing her Daughter

Relief of Queen Nefertiti Kissing her Daughter

In sunk limestone relief, at left Nefertiti, preserved head and neck, kissing a princess whose arm is extended around her mother. At right, three mutilated columns of text and above, one ray of the Aten holding an ankh. Flesh folds indicated on necks of both figures. Queen wears braided wig with diadem. The princess wears...

Torso of Queen Nefertiti

Torso of Queen Nefertiti

Meticulously crafted, a remains of a torso statue from the Amarna period, believed to represent Nefertiti or perhaps one of her daughters. The statue depicts a woman wearing a close-fitting, pleated linen dress. A pleated robe of linen with fringed border tied beneath her right breast and revealing her exaggeratedly voluptuous figure. “Nefertiti keeps her...

Statue of Akhenaten Kissing his Daughter. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 44866

Statue of Akhenaten Kissing his Daughter

This unfinished limestone statue of King Akhenaten kissing his daughter is of high artistic quality. It was discovered in a sculptor’s atelier, or workshop, at Tell el-Amarna. It depicts King Akhenaten supporting on his knee one of his daughters, probably Meritaten. Akhenaten sits on a stool wearing a short-sleeved tunic and the Blue Khepresh Crown...