This elegant triple lamp with lotus of King Tutankhamun is delicately carved, incised, and polished from one block of alabaster. The central cup is shaped like a lotus chalice, rising on a long stem, and is flanked by two smaller bud-like cups on sinuous stems, each with a leaf spreading out horizontally, as if they...
Fashioned from gold of astonishing purity (some 99.5 per cent) this petite masterpiece takes the form of a falcon mid-swoop, yet crowned with the curling horns and bearded muzzle of a ram. In its talons it clutches paired shen rings, emblems of cosmic eternity, while some 300 delicate cloisons cradle slivers of turquoise, lapis-lazuli, and...
This golden strainer from Bubastis is intended for a wine service, removing sediment from the beverage as it is poured out of jugs, jars or flasks into bowls, goblets or situlae for drinking. The strainer indicates that most if not all of the Tell Basta vessels belonged to just such a wine service, certainly a...
This head was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, at the very threshold of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Fashioned from wood and standing at a modest 30 centimetres in height, it bears a fragile stucco coating, once painted a vivid red but now sadly scarred by age and circumstance. There is...
Decorations show scenes from the Amduat or “Book of What is in the Underworld”, detail of a wall carving in the second corridor of the Tomb of Ramesses IX (KV6). “Amduat (What is in the Netherworld) was used in Ancient Egypt as a generic name for descriptions of the netherworld, but in modern Egyptology is reserved...
The coffin of Khonsu was found in the Tomb of Sennedjem (TT1), Khonsu’s father, at Deir el-Medina, West Thebes. This wooden coffin bears decoration related to Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead on its long sides. On one side Anubis can be seen mummifying the body of Osiris (with whom the deceased is...
The frame of this ceremonial chariot is made of wood. The cabin is decorated with golden spirals, with cartouches of Tutankhamun at the top. This is one of six dismantled chariots discovered in the antechamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The wheel was known in ancient Egypt as early as the Old Kingdom, but the horse-drawn chariot...
A necklace with an open work pectoral ornament of Tutankhamun between Ptah and his consort Sekhmet, inlaid in semi-relief after cloisonné fashion. In the center, with black face, stands the king between the seated god Ptah and goddess Sekhmet. Between is the solar uraeus and the emblem of “Eternal Years”; behind Sekhmet is the king’s...
This ring bezel is decorated with the royal device of two cartouches topped by ostrich plumes, the cartouches frame dancing figures of Bes. Since Bes was closely associated with women in labor and with small children, the use of his image on this signet ring suggests it belonged to a queen, probably Nefertiti herself. Though...
Pectoral jewel of Tutankhamun depicting Horus in the form of a falcon with outspread wings around the sun disk, holding shen rings, the symbols of eternal protection in his claws. The pectoral is a symbol of protection and divine power, and it showcases the exquisite craftsmanship and wealth of the New Kingdom period in ancient...
