This rather splendid little leopard, carved from rich red jasper nearly 3,500 years ago, offers a fascinating glimpse into the leisurely pursuits of Ancient Egyptian royalty. Measuring just 3.2 cm in height, this exquisitely detailed leopard’s head bears the cartouche of Ma’at-Ka-Re, the throne name of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. An inscription upon the back...
Towards the end of the 20th Dynasty, around 1155 B.C., one of Ancient Egypt’s most powerful rulers, Ramesses III, became the victim of an extraordinary palace conspiracy. The plot, now known as the Harem Conspiracy, was intended not merely to assassinate the king, but to alter the royal succession. At its centre stood Tiye, one...
Did an Egyptian prince conspire to murder his own father? And could a mysterious mummy, its mouth stretched wide in an eternal, silent scream, be all that remains of him? Perhaps the most unsettling figure in the assassination plot of Ramesses III known as the “Harem Conspiracy” is the young man commonly called the Screaming...
There are some faces from Ancient Egypt that seem determined not to be forgotten. Among them is that of a young man who died more than 3,000 years ago, his head thrown back, his mouth gaping open, and his features contorted into an expression that has disturbed and fascinated generations of observers. Known to Egyptologists...
This is a vignette (illustration) from the Book of the Dead of Userhat (British Museum. EA10009), an 18th Dynasty papyrus (c. 1450 B.C., around the reign of Amenhotep II), belonging to a Theban royal scribe and official. The scene shows four greenish-grey baboons (hamadryas type) standing upright on their hind legs with arms raised in...
Among the beautifully illustrated funerary manuscripts to survive from Ancient Egypt is the Book of the Dead belonging to Anhay (also known as Anhai), a woman who lived during the later New Kingdom. With its delicate figures, colourful divine imagery and enchanting landscapes of the hereafter, the papyrus offers a remarkable glimpse into the Ancient...
Discovery announced: 13th October 2026. An unexpected discovery in Egypt’s Nile Delta has brought to light the remains of two colossal royal statues, one identified as Ramesses II, the celebrated pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, who ruled from approximately 1279 to 1213 B.C. The discovery was made in the village of Behbeit el-Hagar, in Gharbia...
Carved from a single piece of ivory, this exquisite kohl container turns an object of everyday adornment into a tiny garden of abundance. Upon one face, an elegantly dressed woman moves amongst blossoms, bearing floral tribute as a sacrificial calf walks beside her. On the reverse of the ivory kohl container, lotus and papyrus blossoms...
With only a few deft strokes of red and black ink, an Ancient Egyptian artist caught the elegant sweep of a horse in motion. Drawn upon a fragment of limestone, this lively study belongs to the Ramesside Period, c. 1300–1080 B.C., when the horse had become a familiar symbol of speed, prestige and royal power...
Carved from boxwood during the reign of Amenhotep III, this delicate statuette represents a young woman standing nude, adorned only with jewellery and a narrow girdle of what may be cowrie shells. Her head is closely shaven apart from a short fringe of finely carved hair across the forehead, a style associated with youthful female...
