Women in Egypt

Foreign Wives of the Pharaohs

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...

Cylinder Seal of the Divine Adoratress

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...

Statue of a Woman

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: The Beautiful One Has Come… but from where?

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...

Bakenmut Papyrus

This vividly painted fragment comes from a Book of the Dead scroll dating from 19th Dynasty. The scene depicts a male scribe, identified by his title “Scribe of the House of the King”, offering incense and homage to the enthroned god Osiris, who is flanked by Isis. Behind the scribe stands a female figure bearing...

Woman holding a Cat

The wooden figure depicts a naked woman holding what is identified as a cat to her chest, though the animal’s form is somewhat indistinct. Though undated in the museum’s entry, the figure was acquired by the early 19th-century Scottish traveller and collector Robert Hay of Linplum, who amassed a substantial number of antiquities during his...

Early Dynastic Mother & Child

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...

Woman offering Incense

The limestone ostracon (Musée du Louvre. E 14337) from Deir el-Medina, depicting a woman presenting a cup and vase before a figure holding a smoking bowl, likely represents a domestic or ritual offering scene. The woman’s pleated dress, perfume cone, and lotus flower suggest she is engaged in a ceremonial act, perhaps making an offering...

Figure of a Woman & Child

This delicate Middle Kingdom limestone figurine (E 8000), dating from approximately 2035–1680 B.C., depicts a nude woman standing with truncated legs, wearing a tripartite wig, a cowrie shell belt, and a broad necklace, while tenderly carrying a small child. The figure’s soft curves, subtle modelling, and the inclusion of symbolic jewellery;particularly the cowrie shell belt,...