Two puppies stand side by side with slightly lowered heads, as if hesitating to approach some problem or adversary they cannot yet handle. They must have belonged to a subregister of a larger composition-perhaps a hunt in the desert. The impression of overlap is achieved by the use of incised lines that slope up into...
In this relief Amenemhat I is shown celebrating his thirty-year jubilee (Sed Festival), ritually demonstrating that he was still vigorous and fit to rule. The king is flanked by the jackal-headed god Anubis and the falcon-headed Horus, deities closely associated with coronation rituals; each god offers him an ankh, the hieroglyph for life. To the...
A pregnant Queen Ahmose, with her daughter (and future ruler of Egypt) Hatshepsut in utero. This scene is depicted within the walls of Hatshepsut’s funerary temple Djeser-Djeseru (“Holy of Holies”) and documents the mythos of Hatshepsut’s divine conception and birth, therefore giving her divine-right to the throne of Egypt. It is known as the Birth...
In its entirety the relief showed Ay kneeling in worship with his family and surrounded by a long prayer inscribed in hieroglyphs. The style of Ay’s portrait is typical of the Amarna period in its naturalistic depiction of the narrow and bony face, long nose, and small, squinty eyes- features common to other surviving representations...
Musicians perform as the seminary priest offers libation. A harpist, flute and lute player can be seen performing a Harper’s Song. Interestingly, the Harper’s Song accompanying this scene within the Chapel of Pa-Aten-Em-Heb, has a somewhat agnostic lyric, telling the listener through song, that lamenting and worrying about an Afterlife is seldom constructive, and one...
This limestone fragment was once a part of a full scene that appears to be depicting the king’s procession (almost certainly, king Akhenaten) as he arrived at the temple. On the far left of the fragment, you can see the elbow and arm of a trumpeter, who blows his horn as women in translucent linens...
Fragment of limestone raised relief with remains of original paint, representing three mourning women. They stand, facing left, each holding the flaps of their dress in one hand and beating their breast with the other. Surviving paint is concentrated in the areas of their upper and middle bodies. Some blackish and brownish patches over surface....
These limestone fragments were originally part of a scene in which royal hairdressers attended Queen Neferu. The relief on the right represents Neferu, referred to as “The King’s Wife,” wearing a magnificent beaded usekh collar. Behind her, Henut, the hairdresser, has already pinned one strand of hair and twisted another. The relief on the left...
This white limestone relief fragment shows an unidentified queen clutching a thick usekh collar in her raised left hand. Dressed in a translucent pleated garment with a headdress ornamented with a double uraei, cow horns, double plume and sun disc in the centre, the queen has divine status. The plumes are streaked with blue, brown,...
This sandstone fragmented relief depicts Nefertiti wearing the so-called “Nubian wig” with uraeus. Blue pigment of the headdress remains in places, as with the reddish of Nefertiti’s skin. The profile is instantly recognizable with the famous bust of the queen and is delicately carved with a swan like neck, accompanied by a profile carving of...
