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,...
This stele of the sculptor Bek with his wife Taheret is a significant artefact from the Amarna Period, dating approximately to 1353-1336 B.C. It features Bek, whose name translates to “Servant” in Egyptian, and who was the first chief royal sculptor under Akhenaten. His father, Men, held the same prestigious position under Akhenaten’s father, Amenhotep...
This sunken relief depicts Hatshepsut offering incense to the fertility god Min-Amun, most often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail. Although it had been demolished and parts were reused in antiquity, following rediscovery, the chapel has...
This fine limestone statue probably comes from a chapel dedicated to the god Horus, in the vicinity of the tomb of King Djer at Abydos. At the time of the discovery, the statue still retained significant remains of its polychromy. The breast was covered with a gold leaf, and the wings still had, in places,...
The ankh mirror case of Tutankhamun is carved in gilded wood and the king’s name is inlaid on the lid with colored glass and semiprecious stones. The interior of the case is lined with silver. The mirror it once contained was not found. Mirrors, made of polished gold, silver, copper, or bronze, were part of...
The khopesh sword of Tutankhamun is a single piece of bronze divided into three parts. The first part is the hilt, which is black. The second and third parts form the blade. The second part is straight, on the same level as the handle, and is engraved with the figure of a lotus flower with...
