The worship of the goddess Neith began as early as the third millennium BC and continued until the end of the pharaonic era. She was a complex deity who was a warrior goddess, a creator goddess, a mother goddess. As a funerary goddess, she is…
Cats, in ancient Egypt, were not just pets but symbols of Bastet, the goddess of fertility and protection. The popularity of Bastet’s cult from the Late Period to the Ptolemaic Period led to the creation of a large number of seated cat statuettes.…
This jug is composed of green, free-blown glass. The body is spherical with a cylindrical neck and a funnel mouth. An applied ring is below the rim and a thick applied festoon rests low on the neck. The ribbon strap handle is pulled up from the jug’s…
The Egyptian ruler Sety I was buried with over 1000 shabtis of different materials, many of which are found in Egypt and museums around the world. When the king’s tomb (KV 17) was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817, he found shabtis strewn across…
Animals playing musical instruments appear in Egyptian art from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period. The baboon crouches on his hind quarters and plays a lute, an instrument that was introduced in the New Kingdom. Composed of spotted faience, this…
This bronze statuette depicts the mummiform god of the underworld Osiris. The body of the god is wrapped in a close-fitting shroud with his hands poking out of vertical slits. In his right hand he holds a flail, and in his left, a crook. On his head,…
The deceased is shown wearing a blue tripartite wig with yellow stripes and a false beard. His eyes are inlaid and rimmed. Only three upper rows of the broad collar remain and a portion of drop-shaped beads in red, green, blue and yellow at the…
Models of sailing boats were more common in burials of the 11th and 12th Dynasties to aid the deceased’s transportation in the afterlife. This model represents a solar boat with an erroneously placed crew and mast. The original solar boat had a…
A polychromed wooden upper end of a coffin lid. The owner wears the vulture headdress, a circlet, and a blue and yellow striped tripartite wig with lappets ending in a yellow band. Above her forehead is a winged scarab and she wears a broad collar.…