This small statuette shows the Crown Prince Thutmose lying on a lion bier. The two goddesses Isis and Nephthys are depicted at the head and the raised foot end. The inscription on the long side of the bier gives the names and titles of the heir to the throne: “King’s son, Sem Priest, Thutmose, the...
This calcite-alabaster canopic chest and its lid were made for storing the canopic jars of Shoshenq I (943-922 BC), the founder of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt. The nomen and prenomen cartouches of Shoshenq I are carved on the surface. No trace has yet been found of the tomb of Shoshenq I. Egyptologists differ over...
The bears and the jar holding oil represented on this relief exemplify the exotic animals and precious goods among the Near Eastern booty. Territorial conquest was not the aim of these enterprises; rather it was the acquisition of raw materials, animals, and sometimes people.) Shown under the northern courtyard portico was booty from the Levant....
The bust of Queen Nefertiti housed in Berlin’s Neues Museum is one of Ancient Egypt’s most famous works of art. A prime example of ancient artistry, this icon has been called “the most beautiful woman in the world”. Hypnotizing audiences since it went on display in 1923, the statue gives insight into the enigmatic queen...
Relief of Queen Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of King Amenhotep III, wearing the vulture headdress and uraeus. The fragment was part of a stele. From the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III at Western Thebes. Tiye married Amenhotep III at the age of eleven or twelve in the second year of his reign, being approximately...
This small portrait of Queen Tiye was probably produced in the last years of rule of her husband because the queen is shown at an advanced age. The artist produced a realistic face which captures the personality of Tiye: Intelligent, determined and assertive, all qualities which are also evident through historic-literary sources. Queen Tiye was...
A rare figure of the Egyptian scarab beetle creator god Khepri, with a human head and arms emerging from a scarab’s exoskeleton. The so-called heart scarabs had to protect the heart of the deceased. According to ancient Egyptians, the heart contained the intellect and emotions. For this reason, it should have been preserved in the...
Portrait head of a princess of one of the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti from a composite statue, it was discovered within the workshop of the royal sculptor Thutmose at Tell el-Amarna, or Akhetaten. In Amarna art the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti express the tenets of the new religion. Gathered playfully near their parents,...
The stele of sculptor Bek the chief royal artist is itself a very distinctive product, with two figures contained within a naos but carved almost three-dimensionally. If, as would seem very possible, Bek himself carved the stele, this would be the oldest self-portrait known. The inscription of this stele also mentions him being taught by...
