This ostracon (British Museum. EA8505) was discovered in Deir el-Medina, the site of the famed Worker’s Village (Set Ma’at). The Worker’s Village housed the workmen and their families employed to construct nearby royal and aristocratic tombs. It is officially classified as a heritage site due to the large number of archaeological discoveries left by the...
This face, carved from wood (unknown at the present which type of wood), measures at 22.8cm and was purchased by the British Museum from the collection of the Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore (1774–1841) in 1843. Originally, this wooden face was made to be attached to a coffin, alas, whether it ever was attached to...
This wig made of human hair, also referred to as a “double/duplex wig” due to the two contrasting styles in one piece, would have been worn by a male of elite status in New Kingdom Egyptian society and was discovered in Thebes. The wig is made of real human hair, plaited and tousled, and its...
Tjetji is shown in the classic pose of a standing official, with his left leg advanced, a long staff in his left hand, and a sekhem scepter (now lost) held horizontally in his right hand. The arms of this statue were made separately and pegged to the body, and the feet tenoned into a separate...
Nebamun was a middle-ranking official “scribe and grain accountant” during the period of the New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt. He is thought to have lived ca. 1350 BC and worked at the vast temple complex near Thebes, where the state-god Amun was worshiped. His name was translated as “My Lord is Amun”, and his association...
The goddess Nut is illustrated with a laden fruit tree behind her. Her hair is long and in tresses, and she is adorned with various jewels such as a chaplet, floral collar, and a necklace with pendants. Her arms are decorated with golden bracelets in the form of snakes. A vertical register of hieroglyphs with...
This mummy board was inspiration for various mythological tales associated with misfortune in the early 20th century. This included being the cause of death of British writer and journalist, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, and even the sinking of the Titanic; After the tragic sinking, stories persisted that this ‘mummy’ was on board the ill-fated ship and...
This colossal limestone bust depicts a female figure wearing what is known as the ‘Hathor wig’, which has wide lappets on either side of the face that curve at the ends and a very broad lappet at the back. This sort of wig has been named after the goddess Hathor because it resembles her hairstyle,...
The term “side lock of youth” is not totally true, as the “side lock” is typically plaited hair rather than “a lock”, with the end twisted into a spiral. In Middle Kingdom portrayals, the end is rolled forward, rather like a lone ‘pigtail’. Alas, throughout history and even in modern times, a “lock of hair”...
Nubkheperre Intef VI (also known as Antef, Inyotef, and Intef VI) was an Egyptian monarch of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt who reigned in Thebes during the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt was divided into rival dynasties, including the Hyksos in Lower Egypt. Nubkheperre Intef’s tomb was eventually discovered by early Egyptologists about 1881, but...
