The gold diadem of Tutankhamun was designed to secure the wig of the king during ceremonies and to protect his forehead in the hereafter. It is a multicolored masterpiece, decorated with gold cloisonnés inlaid with circles of carnelian and edged with inlays of turquoise, lapis lazuli, and blue glass. At the center front are the...
This greywacke statue of Thutmose III was found in the Karnak Cachette in 1904. With the legs below the knees missing, the statue measures at 90cm tall. The Karnak Cachette was discovered by Gaston Maspero in 1903 and excavated by Georges Legrain between 1903 and 1907. It was a treasure trove of finds, with over...
The battle of Kadesh is one of the world’s largest chariot battles, fought beside the Orontes River, King Ramesses II sought to wrest Syria from the Hittites and recapture the Hittite-held city of Kadesh. There was a day of carnage as some 5,000 chariots charged into the fray, but no outright victor. The Kadesh Treaty...
In this exquisite pectoral, a winged large scarab beetle riding on a sacred barque 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 underworld. The pectoral...
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...
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. The beard was a sign of neglect and was reserved for days of mourning. At the same time, a fake, well-tended beard was a sign of...
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...
