The spectacular “Asyut Dog” is a large limestone statue of what may be a dog, a wolf or a golden jackal – the latter is the most likely. The statue is thought to come from the area surrounding the city of Asyut in Middle Egypt, and more specifically from the vicinity of its sacred animal...
Fragmentary green schist statue of king Mentuhotep VI, the lower legs and base now missing. The king wears the nemes headcloth, with wide striped lappets that extend over the shoulders and a twisted braid at the back. The material is tucked behind the ears, and a faint horizontal band across the forehead. Above this is...
Lord of the sky, solar god, and god of kingship — Horus is among Egypt’s oldest deities. The falcon soaring in the sky embodied the god’s qualities, and Horus was represented as a falcon or falcon-headed man. As heir to the divine kingship of Egypt, he appears here with the royal uraeus (cobra) and the...
This statuette represents the god Anubis or Wepwawet, the jackal guardians of burial sites. The figure is solid cast from copper alloy, and the details of its fur are incised. The figure may originally have decorated the top of a shrine. In some versions of ancient Egyptian religious beliefs Anubis assisted in the mummification and...
This finely executed representation of Thutmose III as a sphinx is made of extremely hard stone. The transition between the head of the king and the powerful feline body has been masked by the nemes headdress and the stylized lion’s mane which forms a bib-like panel on the chest. A short column of inscription running...
In this magnificent example, the face belongs to Senusret III of 12th Dynasty whose features are very distinctive. With the body of a lion and the head of a human, the sphinx symbolically combined the power of the lion with the image of the reigning king. He wears a pleated linen headcloth, called a nemes...
This obsidian head, a masterpiece of Egyptian craftsmanship, was part of a full-length statue that probably portrayed king Senwosret III in his mature years. The king is wearing a pleated head-dress (nemes), with the sacred serpent (uraeus), the symbol of royal power. In this piece the artist conveys the impression of a firm but very...
This statue of kneeling captive can be dated to the reign of Pepi II for stylistic reasons. Beginning at least in the mid 5th Dynasty, large sculptures of bound foreign captives appeared in the pharaoh’s pyramid complex. Pepi I and Pepi II had great numbers of them. Statues of prisoners were presumably placed in areas...
Ptahshepses in this statue is portrayed as a scribe sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. He has a partly unrolled papyrus on his knees, a common “reading scribe” posture in Ancient Egypt. A heart-shaped amulet hangs around his neck with a counterpoise at the back. The head of Ptahshepses is inclined gently toward...
The nursing woman sits on the ground with one knee raised. Against the hammock of cloth formed by her skirt stretched over her knee she holds a child whose yellow skin indicates she is a girl. With one hand the woman holds the child’s head, while with the other she offers her breast to the...
