With only a few deft strokes of red and black ink, an Ancient Egyptian artist caught the elegant sweep of a horse in motion. Drawn upon a fragment of limestone, this lively study belongs to the Ramesside Period, c. 1300–1080 B.C., when the horse had become a familiar symbol of speed, prestige and royal power...
Queen Tuya (Mut-Tuya) was the wife of Seti I and the mother of Ramesses II, later remembered as Ramesses the Great. Born outside the immediate royal family, she was the daughter of Raia, a lieutenant of the chariotry, and Ruia, yet rose to occupy one of the most distinguished positions at the Ramesside court. Under...
This finely carved limestone funerary figure belonged to a man named Keny. Unlike ordinary ushabtis, which were intended magically to perform agricultural labour for the deceased in the afterlife, overseer ushabtis were represented as supervisors, directing the other funerary servants. Keny is shown wearing an elaborate pleated kilt and shirt, a broad usekh collar, curled...
Pharaohs are rarely shown in close companionship with Seth, let alone flanked by him in statuary. Most kings preferred the reassuring embrace of Amun, Ptah, Horus, or Osiris. Yet, the Ramesside kings stand out strikingly. In several monuments; especially at Avaris/Per-Ramesses, Qantir, Sehel, and parts of Abydos, Seth appears alongside them with a sort of...
This colossal statue of Ramesses II, also known as the illustrious Ramesses the Great (c. 1279–1213 B.C.), is hewn from radiant red granite quarried at Aswan. It was unearthed in 1820 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Caviglia at Mit Rahina, ancient Memphis, where it once stood proudly on the southern flank of the Temple...
This gold band, once part of the neck of a silver vessel, offers a tantalising glimpse into the ritual and mythological world of Ancient Egypt during the reign of Ramesses II or shortly thereafter (circa 1279–1213 B.C.). Found at Tell Basta (ancient Bubastis) within the Temple of Bastet, the fragment bears rich symbolic decoration despite...
A reminder that even in the shadow of eternity, the craftsmen of Thebes found time for life’s more earthly pleasures, this playful and rather daring sketch from the workmen’s village captures a rare glimpse into the more private humour of Ancient Egyptian life. Painted swiftly in black ink, it shows a man and woman engaged...
Userkhaure-Setepenre Setnakhte came to the throne at a moment of uncertainty; a king without clear ancestry who nonetheless restored order and re-established divine kingship after the troubled close of the Nineteenth Dynasty. His reign, brief but decisive (c. 1189–1186 B.C.), marked the founding of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty, the final great line of the New Kingdom....
Ever seen an ancient meme? This limestone sketch (Musée du Louvre Museum. E 32954) from Deir el-Medina might just be one! Drawn over 3,000 years ago (c. 1295–1069 B.C.) by an artisan of the royal tomb-builders’ village depicts a cat standing upright, holding or offering a vase and a lotus flower to another seated cat,...
In 1290 B.C., Ramesses I, former general turned Pharaoh, was laid to rest in the Valley of the Kings, wrapped in linen and legacy. But centuries later, tomb robbers stirred, priests panicked, and the royal mummy was whisked away into hiding. Fast-forward to the 19th century, and his remains were quietly sold to curious foreigners and ended up, quite astonishingly, in a dusty glass case in Niagara Falls, Canada, labelled merely as an “Egyptian nobleman.”
