Images

The sarcophagus was prepared for Egypt's last native pharaoh, Nectanebo II. Nectanebo's reign was cut short in the year 343 BCE, when the emperor Artaxerxes III restored Egypt to Persian rule. Nectanebo fled south, never to regain control...

Montuemhat kneels behind a stela, raising his hands in worship. The damaged top left of the stela shows him likewise, adorning the sun-god Atum-Khepri. A hymn below describes Atum's sunset into the netherworld. A matching statue, now in Cairo...

This is one of the largest representations of scarab beetles to survive. It also ranks among the last great statues of any pharaonic deity. The scarab represented Khepri, the form assumed by the sun-god at dawn. The Egyptians noticed that...

The cobras on Tasherenese's headdress and forehead signal a royal status, and her fly-whisk was typical of queens. She was, however, not a queen. An inscription on the back-pillar identifies her as the mother of King Amasis, who started out...

The Governor of Upper Egypt dedicated this bowl to the goddess Hathor and Mut, both named in the inscriptions. The front displays Hathor's face. The bowl was presented by the kneeling figure of Montuemhat, but only traces of his hands survives...

The cobra emblem on the forehead and the Hathoric wig confirms this is a queen. Just as pharaohs were deemed an incarnation of Horus, so did queens embody the goddess Hathor. Ahmose-Merytamun was a sister and wife of Amenhotep I. The bust...

Priests used bowls like this in temples for liquid offerings to the gods. Two faces of the goddess Hathor adorn the rim. Flat depictions of persons were usually in profile, but Hathor's face was widely displayed in frontal view. In such images...

The statue shows the king offering pots of water or wine. Based on parallel statues, large parts have been restored in modern times, including the hands, posts, and knees. Cartouches enclosing Ramesses' birth and throne names appear on his...

The enthroned pharaoh has idealized features and wears a striped head-cloth, false beard, and pleated kilt. A bull's tail, symbol of superhuman strength, hangs between the legs. Many Egyptian kings used the title of "bull" or "strong bull"...

Detail of the upper margin of the sarcophagus of the last native Egyptian pharaoh Nectanebo II showing the so-called "djed" and tyet" symbols. The djed, a pillar-like symbol, represents the backbone (spine) of Osiris, the god of the underworld...