This small faience vessel in the shape of a hedgehog was most likely a perfume or cosmetic vessel. Texts and images tell us that both men and women wore eye makeup and applied perfume. Perfume was associated with the divine in ancient Egypt and the presence of a deity is sometimes signaled by a sweet...
In this statuette of Isis suckling Horus, the goddess is seated on a throne whose hieroglyphic sign is used to write her name. She wears a lovely three-part “raven black” wig with tubular locks covering her shoulders with the remains of a vulture; it is surmounted by a mortar ringed with uraei. In its center...
This steep-sided pyramidion is inscribed for Iufaa, a priest of Osiris, ruler of the Netherworld, at his sacred site of Abydos, and originally would have surmounted a memorial chapel at this site. It is decorated on all four faces, with almost identical images on each pair of opposing sides. An inscription at the top of...
Blue-green faience amulet depicting the god Khnum or Amun. In ancient Egypt the ram was revered for its procreative abilities and as a symbol of virility. Its cult has been attested since the beginning of Egyptian civilization. The amulet in the shape of a ram, or part of it, spread widely between 664-525 BC, although...
The lungs and windpipe or sema amulet was often placed on a mummy‘s chest in order to give it life in the underworld. As such, the shape of this sign frequently appears in Egyptian art in scenes of the king uniting the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Sema or Sma hieroglyph, used...
This standing statue portrays the nobleman Mentuemhat, who played an important role in the clergy of Amun-Re at Karnak and in the administration of Thebes. It shows him as a middle-aged man in the usual striding pose. Although the body was rendered in the traditional artistic style, well built and proportioned, his wrinkled facial features...
This bust head belongs to Mentuemhat, the Fourth Prophet of Amun, Mayor of Thebes and Governor of Upper Egypt. He was the greatest man in Upper Egypt during the 25th Dynasty and at the beginning of the 26th Dynasty. The head depicts him as an old man who is bald. He has narrow eyes, well-defined...
This relief depicts the cobra on a neb basket from the king’s Two Ladies name. Small Late Period and Ptolemaic reliefs or sculptures that depict a subject in a partial or unfinished way but are themselves finished objects constitute a special class of object. Guidelines like those for artists are often prominently exhibited as part...
The serpent goddess Renenutet had two main roles. As the root of her name (Renen) makes clear, she was the ‘nurse’, mainly of the king, to whom she ensured a favorable destiny from birth. The goddess was also worshiped because she ensured the success of the harvest and the protection of the crops. In Ancient...
Originally Egyptologists at the museum thought that the mummy of Ankh Hor was untouched, but recent x-rays found modern pins and clips. A re-examination of the cartonnage revealed that it had been cut, re-sealed and painted over. Although no one knows why it was opened, it is possible that Victorian researchers started to unwrap Ankh...
