Carved in elegant, elongated form, this striking figure represents the goddess Menkaret striding forward, supporting upon her head the mummiform, Osiride image of King Tutankhamun. The king is rendered as Osiris, lord of the afterlife, signifying his rebirth and eternal sovereignty beyond death. Menkaret, a protective and regenerative deity, here embodies divine support (both physical...
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 small wooden statuette represents Taweret, whose name means “the Great One,” a powerful household deity revered for her protection of women and children. Her composite form (hippopotamus body, crocodile back and tail, and leonine limbs) draws upon some of the most formidable creatures of the Nile, each known for its fierce defence of its...
Irynefer was a workman of the royal necropolis at Deir el-Medina, the famous village that housed the craftsmen responsible for cutting and decorating the tombs of the kings in the Valley of the Kings. His title, “Servant in the Place of Truth” (Egyptian: sḏm-ꜥš m st mꜣꜥt), was the formal designation given to these elite...
This fragment of wall painting, often known as the “Princess Fresco”, formed the lower portion of a larger decorative scene from the royal palace at Amarna, the city founded by Akhenaten. The scene depicts the king and his queen, Nefertiti, relaxing informally with their daughters within the palace residence. Two of the princesses are shown...
Hes-ewers were used for pouring ritual libations. It is not known how it came to be in the tomb of Psusennes I in Tanis on the east bank of the Nile in Lower Egypt. Ahmose fought against the Hyksos, and it is possible that it came from a monument of his reign in the eastern...
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...
Carved in dark granodiorite, this commanding head of Amun bears features closely aligned with those of Tutankhamun, marking it as a royal commission of his reign. Though acquired in Cairo in 1907, the sculpture was almost certainly created for Karnak, Amun’s great temple at Thebes. The head belongs to the young king’s programme of restoration,...
In a quiet chamber of House L.50.12 at Amarna, not far from a modest domestic shrine, excavators of the 1923–24 season uncovered two sandstone figures standing side by side: the heretic king Akhenaten and his queen, the ever-radiant Nefertiti. Fashioned in the later years of the Atenist experiment, both statues once held offering trays aloft...
