Middle Kingdom

Gold Diadem of Princess Khenmet

Gold Diadem of Princess Khenmet

The diadem of princess Khenmet is formed of a series of horizontal and vertical decorations made of gold with inlays of semiprecious stones and glass paste. Each horizontal element is composed of a rosette flanked by two bell-shaped flowers heavily inlaid with carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli. This decoration is repeated eight times. Two delicate...

Stele of Amenemhat and his family

This rectangular stele made out of painted limestone shows Amenemhat with his wife, son, and daughter. All the figures are shown seated except his daughter. She stands before an offering table heaped with different kinds of offerings.  The son is depicted seated between his mother and father. Beneath the seated lady, there is a basket containing...

Hippopotamus Figurine

This benevolent-looking hippopotamus figurine slips into the marshes, taking on their color and half-engulfed in water plants. Bright-blue Egyptian faience figures of hippopotami such as this were placed in the tombs of high-ranking civil servants toward the end of the Middle Kingdom. The hippopotamus was associated with the fertility of the Nile mud or silt....

Girdle of Princess Sithathor

Girdle of Princess Sithathor

The girdle of the Princess Sithathor is made of eight gold, half-open cowry shells. The ones at each end have flat reverses, and were joined by means of grooves to serve as a clasp, fastening the girdle when they slid one into the other. The shells are separated from each other by rhomboidal polychrome beads...

Head of a Statue of the God Sobek Shedeti

Head of a Statue of the God Sobek

Fragment of a limestone statue (snout restored) of the chief god of Faiyum, the crocodile-headed Sobek. The statue comes from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat III, attached to his pyramid in Hawara. Although the temple was begun by Amenemhat III, it was incomplete at the time of his death. It was finished by his daughter,...

The Royal Cartouche of Senusret I

Cartouche of Senusret I

Bas relief depicts the royal cartouche of Senusret I (Kheperkare, The Ka of Re is created). The cartouche is nothing more than the elongated shape of the circular sign “shen”, which was most probably the symbol of the solar disk. It was exclusively used for the name of the king, protecting him and functioning almost...

Funeral Bed of Osiris. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 32090

Funeral Bed of Osiris

Osiris on his funeral bed inscribed with the name of king Djedkheperew. The sculpture was tentatively attributed to another 13th Dynasty king, Khendjer, but examinations of the inscriptions proved that it originally bore the name of Djedkheperew. The creative power of the male extended to the world of the gods. In order to be reborn,...

Senusret I embraced by Ptah

Relief depicts King Senusret I being embraced by the god Ptah. Detail of an elegant pillar of King Senusret I, is finely decorated with relief on four sides. Each side shows the king in the presence of a different deity: the falcon Horus of Edfu; Atum of Heliopolis wearing the Double Crown; Amun of Thebes...

Model of Nubian Archers

Model of Nubian Archers

These wooden model of 40 Nubian archers are grouped together on the same pedestal and arranged in 10 rows of four. Each archer is holding in one hand a bow and in the other a bunch of arrows. They are wearing red kilts with green designs and a flap of cloth in the center decorated...

Model of boats with a fishing scene

Model of boats with a fishing scene

This fishing model was found in the serdab of Meketre’s tomb which contained twenty-five wooden models of men and women performing various daily tasks typical of life along the Nile. One vivid and animated scene shows fishermen on board two green-hulled boats used on the river in ancient times; the boats are made from strips...