Women in Egypt

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,...

Priestesses

In Ancient Egypt, priestesses moved with reverence and rhythm through temple courts and sacred halls, their linen robes rustling like whispers of the gods. These women, often chosen from noble or elite families, were no ordinary attendants, they were the earthly hands and voices of the divine, charged with the sacred duties of service to...

Tamutmutef

The coffin of Tamutmutef, “Chantress of Amun”, is an exquisite example of funerary craftsmanship from the Third Intermediate Period, dating approximately between 1076 and 746 B.C. This period, following the decline of the New Kingdom, was marked by political fragmentation and a shift in religious power, particularly toward the priesthood of Amun at Thebes. Within...

Tutankhamun’s Daughters

Within the Tutankhamun’s tomb, two mummified foetuses were discovered. Known as Mummies 317a and 317b, the female mummies were buried with no namesake alongside their father, and are simply referred to as “Osiris” on their coffins The foetus known as 317a was born prematurely at approximately 5–6 months of gestation. With C.T. scans estimating her...

Tamit

Tamit is an Ancient Egyptian mummy housed in the Egyptian Museum of Turin (inv. no. Cat. 2218/02, CGT 13003), dating to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, c.722–664 B.C. Her provenance is likely Thebes, in modern-day Luxor, a major religious centre of Ancient Egypt. Examination of her remains reveals that she died at a young age and was...

Meritamun Reconstruction

In 2016, in the heart of Melbourne, Australia, a remarkable project breathed new life into the visage of an Ancient Egyptian woman. Known to us now as Meritamun, her mummified head, believed to be at least over 2,000 years old, has undergone a transformation from the remnants of a long-lost ancient woman to a testament...

Princess Sebeknakht Nursing

Princess Sebeknakht Nursing

This statuette, fashioned from an arsenical copper alloy, portrays the noblewoman and princess Sebeknakht in the intimate act of nursing her infant son. Adorned with a diadem crowned by a regal uraeus, she is gracefully depicted in a crouched position, her left arm and bent knee tenderly supporting the child as he feeds. The infant,...

Statue of Demedji and Hennutsen

Demedji was an Official during Egypt’s Old Kingdom, specifically during the 5th Dynasty, c. 2494–2345 B.C. While not much is known about his exact position, the hieroglyphic inscriptions on this Statue of Demedji and Hennutsen indicate that he held an administrative or bureaucratic role, likely within the royal court or a provincial government. His titles...

Maatkare Mutemhat: The High Priestess of Amun

Maatkare Mutemhat was the daughter of Pinedjem I, the de facto ruler of Upper Egypt as the High Priest of Amun at Thebes, and his wife, Duathathor-Henuttawy, who carried the blood of kings, being the daughter of Ramesses XI—the final sovereign of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty. It is thought that Maatkare Mutemhat ascended to a sacred...