Queen Tuya (Mut-Tuya) was the wife of Seti I and the mother of Ramesses II, later remembered as Ramesses the Great. Born outside the immediate royal family, she was the daughter of Raia, a lieutenant of the chariotry, and Ruia, yet rose to occupy one of the most distinguished positions at the Ramesside court. Under...
Known as the Salt Head, after the British collector and diplomat Henry Salt, this arresting portrait of a shaven-headed man is one of the more enigmatic works in the Louvre’s Egyptian collection. The long, finely modelled face, prominent lips, narrow eyes and pierced ears have encouraged comparisons with the distinctive portraiture of the late 18th...
This finely carved limestone funerary figure belonged to a man named Keny. Unlike ordinary ushabtis, which were intended magically to perform agricultural labour for the deceased in the afterlife, overseer ushabtis were represented as supervisors, directing the other funerary servants. Keny is shown wearing an elaborate pleated kilt and shirt, a broad usekh collar, curled...
The mace-head was uncovered in the “Main Deposit” of the Temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis, one of the most important religious and political centers of early Egypt. The same cache also contained the famous Narmer Palette, linking the artifact directly to the formative period of Egyptian statehood. The Scorpion mace-head measures around 25 centimeters and...
Known as “The Wilbour Plaque“, named after American Egyptologist Charles Edwin Wilbour (1833–1896), who purchased the piece in 1881. It currently resides in America at the Brooklyn Museum (16.48) in NYC. It is thought this piece was originally part of a larger scene, and was used as a reference piece for royal artisans. There is...
This finely carved limestone relief once adorned the tomb chapel of Horemheb, at a time when he was still a general serving under Tutankhamun. It records a moment of high ceremonial theatre, showcasing Horemheb’s huldiging, or formal honouring, for military and diplomatic success. At the centre, attendants place heavy gold collars around Horemheb’s neck. This...
This limestone relief fragment (Met Museum. 36.3.239) once formed part of a statue niche in the offering chapel of Senenmut, the influential official of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. The surviving hieroglyphs above a kneeling woman most likely identify her as “his beloved sister Ahmose,” a reading reinforced by a wooden Osiris figure dedicated to a...
Beneath the quiet lights of the Brooklyn Museum rests the head of a tomb statue, carved in limestone and once painted in warm honey-brown tones: a complexion both lifelike and luminous, as though the gentleman had only just stepped out of Egypt’s Old Kingdom sun. His wig, fashioned in the familiar tiered “helmet” style of...
A tender and unexpectedly gentle vision of Akhenaten greets us here; not the exaggerated, long (almost lion-like) faced king of the Amarna reliefs, but a softer, quieter sovereign in painted limestone. A faint flush of red still clings to his lips, a ghost of the colours that once enlivened his courtly presence. Upon his brow...
In the long reign of Ramesses II (between 1279 and 1213 B.C.), devotion could be as grand as a temple façade or as humble as a handheld shrine. This charming fragment, now housed in The Met (90.6.1), once formed part of a larger votive statue crafted by an official of the king. In Ancient Egypt,...
