This remarkably preserved Old Kingdom mummy offers a rare insight into early Egyptian burial practice, revealing a period when the body was arranged not in rigid formality, but in carefully composed repose. Through its posture, materials, and craftsmanship, it preserves a fleeting moment of ancient ritual, belief, and human care. He was laid down as...
This article below is a summary for a novice reader to grasp, for the full study, read here. The Genome of NUE001, an Old Kingdom Egyptian from Nuwayrat For centuries, the story of Ancient Egypt has been reconstructed from stone, art, and text. Temples, tombs, reliefs, and inscriptions have long been our primary witnesses. In...
Beneath the quiet lights of the Brooklyn Museum rests the head of a tomb statue, carved in limestone and once painted in warm honey-brown tones: a complexion both lifelike and luminous, as though the gentleman had only just stepped out of Egypt’s Old Kingdom sun. His wig, fashioned in the familiar tiered “helmet” style of...
This delicate conical vessel, carved from translucent quartz crystal, dates to the reign of Khufu during Egypt’s Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4 (2551–2528 B.C.). Measuring a mere 4.2 cm in height and 4.3 cm in diameter, the cup bears a small nick along its rim and traces of yellow-brown staining upon its side and base, the...
Nestled within a specially designed museum at the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the so-called Khufu ship, more accurately known as the Solar Boat, is one of the most extraordinary archaeological survivals of the ancient world. Discovered in 1954, buried in a sealed limestone pit near the pyramid’s southern face, this full-sized cedar...
The fragment of a head of king Khafre, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, once belonged to a statue that likely stood in one of the king’s grand temple complexes at Giza. Most probably, it was part of a seated or standing figure placed within the valley temple, mortuary temple, or possibly along the...
The tomb of Nefermaat and his wife Itet, located at Meidum, stands as one of the most significant examples of early Old Kingdom funerary art. Nefermaat, son of Sneferu and a powerful figure in his own right, held numerous prestigious titles, including Overseer of Works and Vizier. His tomb, known to Egyptologists as Mastaba 16,...
At an imposing height of nearly 2.35 metres (8 feet), this magnificent travertine (Egyptian Alabaster) statue depicts king Menkaure, the illustrious builder of the smallest Pyramid at Giza, seated in a pose of serene dignity and regal authority. Unearthed in 1909 by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition from the ruins of Menkaure’s...
King Menkaure, the illustrious pharaoh of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty, reigned during the mid-26th century B.C., leaving an enduring legacy of majesty and refinement. Best known for his resplendent pyramid at Giza—smaller yet more exquisitely crafted than those of his predecessors—Menkaure was a sovereign of both might and measured grace. His reign is immortalised through sublime...
In 2023, an archaeological team led by renowned Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass made a groundbreaking discovery at Saqqara, an ancient burial site near Cairo, Egypt. This excavation uncovered several Old Kingdom tombs, including the sealed sarcophagus of Hekashepes, a noble who lived over 4,300 years ago during the 5th or 6th Dynasty (c. 2300 B.C.)....
