This ring bezel is decorated with the royal device of two cartouches topped by ostrich plumes, the cartouches frame dancing figures of Bes. Since Bes was closely associated with women in labor and with small children, the use of his image on this signet ring suggests it belonged to a queen, probably Nefertiti herself. Though...
A fragment of a relief depicts court musicians from the Amarna Period and attendants of the royal family, six ladies in waiting and gentlemen sunshade-bearers. During the Amarna Period the need for speedy erection of new temples for Aten led to the use of smaller, now called Talatat, blocks of stone, which were easier to...
The limestone stela shows King Akhenaten and his family as a “Holy Family.” It is considered to be an icon and was intended to be kept in a private chapel of an Amarna house. The stele, topped by the cavetto cornice, is decorated with a scene of an intimate moment from the daily life of...
In this Great Hymn to the Aten, a detail of a painted low relief depicts Akhenaten and his family adoring the sun god Aten. The stele showing Akhenaten and Nefertiti offering to the Aten, followed by their two eldest daughters shaking sistrum. The stele was completed but here is still a grid of red draft...
Portrait head of a princess of one of the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti from a composite statue, it was discovered within the workshop of the royal sculptor Thutmose at Tell el-Amarna, or Akhetaten. In Amarna art the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti express the tenets of the new religion. Gathered playfully near their parents,...
The stele of sculptor Bek the chief royal artist is itself a very distinctive product, with two figures contained within a naos but carved almost three-dimensionally. If, as would seem very possible, Bek himself carved the stele, this would be the oldest self-portrait known. The inscription of this stele also mentions him being taught by...
The colossal statue of Akhenaten serves as a significant archaeological and historical artifact, shedding light on the reign of this unique king and the religious revolution he initiated. In this sculpture, Akhenaten is depicted wears the Pschent or the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as the Khat headdress. The statue is...
Painted limestone statue of Meryre, and his wife Iniuia. He is wearing two rows of gold beads presented by the King. Meryneith started his career under king Akhenaten as ‘Steward of the Temple of Aten’ and ‘Scribe of the Temple of Aten’ in Akhetaten and in Memphis. The latter title might imply that he worked...
This yellow-brown quartzite head of a princess is probably Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten. It was excavated by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft in 1912 in a studio of the chief sculptor Thutmose at Tell el-Amarna. The head is from a composite statue where different pieces were sculpted separately and joined together. The skull is elongated...
This unfinished brown quartzite head of Queen Nefertiti, the beautiful wife of King Akhenaten was part of a composite statue. Each element was sculpted separately to be later assembled into one statue. As it remained unfinished, the head retained the guiding lines of the sculptor: the eyebrows were marked with brown and the eyes with...
