Pink granite triad statue depicting king Ramesses II seated between the god Amun and the goddess Mut represented with the attributes of the goddess Hathor. The king, at the center of the divine embrace, replaces the son of the two gods, Khonsu, to form the Theban triad. Both deities were considered protectors and guarantors for...
A fine painted limestone statue depicting King Amenhotep I. After his death, Amenhotep I was deified and became a source of law and order for centuries. This piece is likely a cult sculpture dating to the 19th Dynasty. King Amenhotep I was celebrated as the founder of the village of Deir el-Medina and divinized by...
This bronze Axe with the monogram of Kha is incised on the upper face of the blade. Some of the tools found in Kha’s funerary assemblage belong to the world of carpentry. An axe stands out among them. It has a wooden handle and a bronze blade, engraved with Kha’s monogram, attached by an elaborate...
The cubit rod of Kha folds in half with a simple bronze hinge at the center; there are absolutely no inscriptions. When Ernesto Schiaparelli discovered the rod, it was folded inside a leather bag with a strap. This extremely rare folding cubit rod was loved by Kha, who was the overseer of works in Deir...
A lotus flower shaped pendant once belonged to the Vizier Imhotep, a high official in the royal court of King Thutmose I. Excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli and Francesco Ballerini from his tomb (QV46), Valley of the Queens, Thebes. The lotus was shown throughout Egypt in tombs and temples to symbolize the union of Upper and...
One of the best-known vignettes in the Book of the Dead is that of the weighing of the heart (“psychostasia”) in the tribunal of the Double Truth, in the presence of Osiris and other gods of the netherworld. Chapter 125 of Book of Dead, Papyrus of Taysnakht, daughter of Taymes. The heart of the deceased...
One of the most typical royal scenes is reproduced on this illustrated ostracon, king Ramesses III in the act of crushing the defeated enemy. The scene was widely used on pylons and external walls of temples. On this piece the king is shown upright, his head adorned with red crown topped by the two feathers...
The mummy of the royal architect Kha who was the overseer of works from Deir el-Medina in the mid-18th Dynasty. It was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of ancient Egypt, one of few tombs of nobility to survive intact. After the discovery of the tomb of Kha by the Italian archaeologists, the Egyptian authorities...
The first workers strike in recorded history took place in the 12th Century BC in Egypt. Even though they regarded the king as a kind of living god, Egyptian workers were not afraid to protest for better working conditions. The most famous example came in the 12th century BC during the reign of the New...
Molded faience amulet in the form of Nefertem or Nefertum, he is often defined as the god of perfumes but this association is secondary. Nefertem was, in fact, first and foremost, the young god of the lotus bud that emerged from the primordial waters, according to the Egyptian myth, and from which the sun was...
