In this exquisite pectoral of Tutankhamun, a winged, large scarab beetle riding on a sacred barque and flanked by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys with their arms outstretched as a sign of protection. The scarab serves a double function: as a heart scarab and as the ba of the sun god lighting the way to...
The Senet Game board of Imenmes who was an ancient Egyptian official, who was ‘Overseer of the Cattle of Amun’. From the New Kingdom onward, the track for the game of Senet was usually engraved on the surface of a wooden box featuring a drawer for the playing pieces, while in previous periods the game...
Taken from Spell 144 of the ‘Book of the Dead’, they were the keepers of the gates of the Underworld, menacing the enemies of order with their sharpened knives. “Egyptians were probably the first to be aware of the nobility inherent in the human form and to express it in art. One can sense the...
Along with its sheath, this ceremonial dagger was a royal gift from king Ahmose to his mother Ahhotep, in whose burial it was discovered. The blade decorated with a typically Aegean technique but Egyptian iconography, bears the titulary of the king on one side and a hunting scene on the other side. Being a gift...
This perfume vase of King Tutankhamun is made of four pieces of alabaster cemented together. The idea conveyed by its symbolism is that the Nile will provide the king and queen, whose names are inscribed on the vase, with its contents. The vulture with the so-called Atef crown on its head represents either goddess Mut...
Relief fragment showing a carpenter with a stubbled beard squatting on scaffolding and working on a wooden object with his adze. Contrary to custom he is shown disheveled and unshaven. New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1292-1189 BC. From Deir el-Medina, West Thebes. Now in the Staatlich Museum, Berlin. The beard was a sign of neglect...
The goddess Taweret is depicted with pendulous breasts and swollen belly, which recalls the image of a pregnant woman. The goddess usually wears a female wig that can be topped with a feathered headdress, a modius (a cylinder-shaped headdress with a flat end), or with horns and a sun disc. Another recurring element is the...
The dignitary is shown in this statuette offering an altar with the head of a ram, the sacred animal of Amun-Re, the main god of Thebes and the New Kingdom. Steatite is a soft, easy to carve stone, which hardens and turns black when baked in a closed kiln. The man wears the so called...
This wooden statuette of a woman depicting her wears a wig with a wreath of leaves and a lotus flower on her forehead. In her left hand she holds a sistrum (a rattle used in the cult of female deities), whose handle only is preserved. The right arm, which was carved separately and attached with...
A bronze Khopesh sword inscribed with the cartouches of King Ramesses II. The Khopesh is an Egyptian sickle-sword that evolved from battle axes. The blunted edge of the weapon’s tip also served as an effective bludgeon, as well as a hook. This Khopesh sword is made of bronze with a typical length of 57.5 cm....
