Limestone Mehen gaming board (also known as the Serpent game or Game of the Snake) Old Kingdom, 4th-6th Dynasty, c. 2543-2152 B.C. Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Netherlands. F 1968/3.1 The earliest known existence of the Serpent Game dates from the Naqada II, Pre-Dynastic Period of Ancient Egypt, c. 3600-3200 B.C. There is a depiction of the...
The pair statue is identified by an inscription painted on the base in black paint as Ptahkhenuwy, supervisor of palace retainers. Private sculpture of the Old Kingdom copied royal sculpture: the poses, youthful body forms, and the wife’s embrace of the husband in this private sculpture is the same as those of King Menkaure and...
Wooden tomb models were deposited as grave goods in the tombs and burial shafts throughout ancient Egypt since its early history, most notably in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. They included a wide variety of wooden figurines and scenes, such as boats, granaries, baking and brewing scenes and butchery scenes. These served as ways to...
The beautiful hieroglyphs on this jubilee vessel identify its owner and the ritual in which it was used, on the left is the Horus name of King Pepi I (one of a king’s five names), “Beloved of the Two Lands [Egypt].” At center is his throne name, Meryre; below are brief, symmetrical texts reading, “given...
More than 2,000 mummified ram heads and a palatial Old Kingdom structure have been uncovered by archaeologists at the Temple of Ramesses II of Abydos. The finds, located roughly 270 miles (435 kilometers) south of Cairo, come from a period of over 1,000 years, from the 6th Dynasty to the Heroic Age, making some of...
The statue of King Teti was originally represented standing with his left leg forward. The legs are now broken and missing. There are no inscriptions on the statue, but it almost certainly belongs to King Teti of the 6th Dynasty because it was found in the funerary temple of that king at Saqqara. The king...
The statue depicts Ranefer, standing and is wearing an overlapped kilt of medium length. His hair was cut short and the eyes are painted. This splendid statue was found together with another statue, almost identical, in two niches in the chapel at his tomb at Saqqara. This one shows him in an old age while...
This rare head of a king with beard and one eye-ball missing; ear chipped; tip of crown broken off and replaced. Recent bruises on the left cheek and the crown. The right eye-ball is carved of fine marl, originally held in place by a copper hand, of which two small fragments (completely oxidized) remain. The...
This andesite porphyry jar with handles for suspension was found in a tomb dates to the Old Kingdom (ca. 2686-2181 BC), it is an object handed down from generation to generation: the wavy handle is in fact a decorative motif typical of the Predynastic Period (ca. 4400-3100 BC). Considering the technology available at the time...
In this relief, the powerful face, thick lips, and coarse profile of the deity are reminiscent of King Djoser as he is depicted at Saqqara. The fragment relief depicts a seated god wearing a long wig and the “divine” beard, with curled tip. A broad collar embellishes the plain, clinging garment from which one hand...
