British Museum

Nebamun’s pool

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...

Goddess Nut on the sarcophagus of Soter

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...

The Mummy’s Curse

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...

Ahmose Meritamun in Hathor wig

Ahmose Meritamun in Hathor wig

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,...

Side-lock of Youth

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”...

Coffin of Nubkheperre Intef

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...

Early Period Skeleton

Human skeleton, likely dating from the 1st Dynasty, buried within a reed basket. Discovered at Tarkhan. This human skeleton of an adult was discovered in Tarkhan, laying in a fetus pose in a cane basket. Tarkhan is an ancient Egyptian necropolis located on the Nile’s west bank, approximately 50 km south of Cairo. Flinders Petrie...

Kemsit, Ornament of the King: Queen, Priestess, and Possible Daughter of Nubia

Kemsit was a consort of king Mentuhotep II, sovereign of the 11th Dynasty (c. 2061–2010 B.C.), and one of the most enigmatic women interred at his mortuary complex at Deir el-Bahari. Her known titles include “King’s Beloved Wife” (ḥmt-nỉswt mrỉỉ.t=f), “King’s Ornament” (ẖkr.t-nỉswt), “King’s Sole Ornament” (ẖkr.t-nỉswt wˁtỉ.t), and “Priestess of Hathor”; a prestigious religious...

Stela of Neferhotep

Neferhotep’s limestone stela has two registers on the face of its spherical top. In the upper register, Amenhotep I and Queen Ahmose-Nefertari sit on thrones facing an altar with a water pot and a floral bouquet. The figurines and text are all carved in raised relief. In the lower register, the foreman Neferhotep, son of...

Sphinx of Taharqa

Sphinx of Taharqa

Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo (Egyptian: 𓇿𓉔𓃭𓈎 tꜣhrwq, Akkadian: Tar-qu-ú, Hebrew: תִּרְהָקָה, Modern: Tīrhaqa, Tiberian: Tīrhāqā, Manetho’s Tarakos, Strabo’s Tearco), was a Nubian king of the 25th Egyptian Dynasty rulers of the Kingdom of Kush, c.747–656 B.C. The Sphinx of Taharqa is a granite gneiss statue of a sphinx with the face of Taharqa....