The braided beard and the flat cap with remnants of double plumes identify this head from a statue god as Amun. His small eyes are separated by a curved depression from the rounded brow ridge; his broad face shows full lips with sharp contours, and, from the side, a slightly drooping chin. These features closely...
This wooden Ka statue is one of two statues that stood guarding the entrance of the burial chamber of Tutankhamun. The King is wearing the Khat headdress and in one hand the king is holding the hedge mace, as the traditional weapon of a victorious king; and in the other, a staff in the form...
A fine limestone statue of king Amenhotep II depicted in the form of the god Ptah-Tatenen from the Karnak Cachette. Tatenen (or Tanen) was the god of the primordial mound in ancient Egyptian religion. His name means “risen land” or ‘exalted earth’, as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. Both Tatenen and...
The deceased Kha and his wife Merit worship Osiris, Lord of the Underworld and Judge of the Dead, detail of a vignette from the Book of the Dead of Kha. The deceased needed all the help he or she could get on his or her long journey to the afterlife, a place full of evil...
A bas relief depicts Isis kneeling on a stool in the shape of the Nebu or gold symbol in hieroglyphs, goddess of motherhood, magic, healing, and rebirth. In addition to her traditional roles as wife, mother, healer, and protector of the dead, Isis was worshiped as the goddess of good fortune, the sea, and travel....
As a sphinx, Hatshepsut displays a lion’s mane and a king’s beard. Hatshepsut ruled as a man, not as a woman, and for this reason her royal protocols and titles are always written without the feminine qualification, which is the “T” letter in hieroglyphs. This is the case in the text inscribed on the base...
The shrine of Hathor and the cow’s statue were retrieved from under heaps of debris south of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. The shrine is from the reign of Thutmose III. Its roof is painted blue with yellow stars to imitate the Vault of Heaven. The statue of Hathor as the divine...
The Great Hymn to Aten is one of the most famous texts from Akhenaten’s reign. It describes Aten as the sole creator, sustainer of life, and a universal omnipresent deity, making it one of the earliest religious texts that resemble later monotheistic traditions. The hymn, inscribed in Akhenaten’s tomb at Tel el-Amarna, praises Aten as...
The stele of Merneptah was originally erected by King Amenhotep III in his mortuary temple on the west bank of Thebes. King Merneptah, the thirteenth son and successor of King Ramesses II, reused the back face of this gray granite stele. The round top of this face, topped by the winged sun disk and flanked...
Portrait head of a princess of one of the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti from a composite statue, it was discovered within the workshop of the royal sculptor Thutmose at Tell el-Amarna, or Akhetaten. In Amarna art the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti express the tenets of the new religion. Gathered playfully near their parents,...
