Discovered in a communal tomb at Medinet Gurob, near the lush margins of the Faiyum, the wooden statuette of the “Lady of the House, Tuty” offers a glimpse into the refined world of Egypt’s late 18th Dynasty, during the reign of Amenhotep III. Shimmering with detail of glittering gold, she stands poised and slender, her...
On the desert’s edge, where the cultivated fields of the Faiyum oasis melt into the barren sands, lies the site of Medinet Gurob. In antiquity, this region was part of the land known as Shedet, the great marshland capital the Greeks would later call Crocodilopolis. Close by rose the pyramid town of Lahun, gateway to...
Diminutive in scale yet dazzling in presence, this statuette portrays Lady Mi, a courtly figure of the reign of Amenhotep III. Carved from wood and once richly embellished with gold leaf and inlays, she wears a heavy wig and broad earrings, fashionably in step with the royal court of her day. Unlike the eternal youth...
Dating from the first quarter of the 2nd century A.D., this piece depicting a woman’s head and chest section, is what remains of a cartonnage coffin, which would have been fitted over her mummy prior to burial. The woman has black curled or tousled hair with a flower crown garland adorning her head. She is...
Ornaments of the King Beyond the gilded colonnades and perfumed courts, within the hidden chambers of Ancient Egypt’s royal palaces, lay a world that was both political theatre and domestic intrigue. Far from being merely a place of idle indulgence, the royal harem was a stage upon which Egypt’s foreign policy, dynastic anxieties, and ideals...
This monumental cylinder seal is far larger than the practical seals used in Egypt and the Near East, which were typically only a few centimetres in length. Its great size and weight reveal that it was not intended for daily use, but rather served as a ceremonial or symbolic object. The seal is made of...
The Late Period was an age of revival and resilience. Egypt, long assailed by foreign powers, turned back to its roots, drawing upon the splendours of Old and Middle Kingdom traditions while also glancing outward to the new world of Greece. This sculpture captures that delicate balance. Images of private women were rarely granted permanence...
Nefertiti, one of the most known figures of the ancient world. Her face is instantly recognisable, from Cairo to Berlin, alas, behind that famous visage lies a figure shrouded in mystery. Beyond the sculpted grace of surviving artworks, we know remarkably little. Her origins remain uncertain, her early life lost to time. We do not...
The Ancient Egyptian Harem: An Opium-Drenched Fantasy or Refined Commune of Courtly Women?
This diminutive yet evocative object, which the Met Museum has listed simply as “A Woman and Her Child“, hails from the very dawn of the Ancient Egyptian Dynastic Period, c. 3100–2900 B.C., known as the 1st Dynasty. Discovered at Abydos, one of Ancient Egypt’s most sacred sites and a focal point of royal and religious...
