British Museum

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...

The Rosetta Stone. British Museum EA2

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The stele was found in a small village in the Delta called Rosetta (Rashid). It is called the Rosetta Stone because...

Statue of Amenhotep III

Colossal Statue of Amenhotep III

In this statue, King Amenhotep III is represented seated on a throne with his arms placed on his legs, palms down. He wears a short kilt, the nemes headdress with a fake beard, collar, and a bull’s tail which is visible between his legs. Both of his eyes have a rimmed upper eyelid – a...

The Battlefield Palette

The Battlefield Palette

The Battlefield Palette is decorated on both faces with scenes in low relief. On one face, two long-necked gazelles (gerenuk) are browsing on a central date-palm. Behind the head of one animal (on the Oxford fragment) is a bird with a hooked beak, possibly a form of guinea-fowl. The lower half of a palette of...

The God Nun Raises the Sun

God Nun Raises the Sun

Nun or Nu, god of the primeval waters, origin of all life and chaos, lifts the barque of the sun god Re (represented by both the scarab and the sun disk) into the sky at the beginning of time. Nut, goddess of the Sky, is hanging from above, holding the god Osiris, also hanging from...

Book of the Dead of Nestanebetisheru

Book of the Dead of Nestanebetisheru

Vignette from Book of the Dead of Nestanebetisheru; frame 87. Full page black line vignette of Geb, Nut and Shu with three registers either side of adoring ancient Egyptian gatekeepers, ba’s and deities including Thoth. Every figure has an accompanying hieroglyphic label written in black ink. Geb is shown as a semi-recumbent figure stretching out...

Faience Ushabti found in the tomb of Seti I

Ushabti of Seti I

Blue glazed composition ushabti of Seti I: the lower leg section is lost. With details painted in black (probably manganese dioxide), Seti I is shown wealing the striped royal ‘nemes’ headdress, once equipped with a rearing cobra above his brow, a broad collar that imitates glazed composition beads, and bracelets that also would have been...

Cosmetic Vase in the form of Fish

Cosmetic Vase in the form of Fish

This cosmetic vase in the form of fish was found in a medium-sized private house at Tell el-Amarna, buried under a plaster floor together with two glass jugs and some metal objects. It is the most spectacular of a small group of fish-form vessels, all representing the ‘bulti’-fish common in the Nile and a standard...

Figure of the Anubis Jackal

Statue of the Anubis Jackal

According to spell 151 of the Book of the Dead, in the tomb chamber, a magic brick with an amulet of Anubis jackal representing the god should be placed on the west wall, facing east to the mummy of the deceased. In this role, the seated jackal Anubis is protecting the dead from any aggressor....

Base and lid of an anthropoid outer coffin of Seshepenmehyt

Anthropoid outer coffin of Seshepenmehyt

The outer coffin of Seshepenmehyt is made of sycamore fig wood, with elaborate polychrome painted decoration. A winged solar disc covers the right breast, and below, a narrow scene showing the weighing of the deceased’s heart (at right). At the level of the knees, Anubis is represented mummifying the deceased as she lies on a...