Everybody loves a good mummy! As early as the the Victorian Era, mummies have captivated people's imaginations, frequently leading to bouts of "Egyptomania" and periods of increased interest in ancient Egyptian history and material culture (such as the so-called "Egyptian Revival" Art Deco style of the 1920s). Even into the modern era, mummies still hold a special intrigue and air of mystery for the public, inspiring an onslaught of books, films, and shows revolving around their discovery and, of course, the famed "mummy's curse". While we've already talked a bit about the Thutmoside mummies ..read more

After a brief hiatus, Thutmose Tuesday is back! This week, I figured we'd discuss one of the most iconic and recognizable ancient Egyptian symbols, the scarab. Associated with the beetle-headed god Khepri (the embodiment of Ra as the rising sun), beginning in the Middle Kingdom scarab amulets became popular symbols of life and rebirth. Because of their environment, the Egyptians often observed scarab beetles rolling balls of dung across the desert, which they likened to the Khepri rolling the orb of the sun across the sky each day. Often, scarab amulets were very small trinkets, usually worked ..read more

When I was visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art this week, one particular exhibition caught my eye. Nestled into the museum’s Egyptian collection was a room covered in framed paintings from the walls of New Kingdom tombs. They were all facsimiles – that is, they were almost all copies of original ancient artwork by early 20th century archaeologists and explorers. Many of these pieces depicted scenes from daily life, as well as some more conventional scenes depicting assorted pharaohs offering to the gods and smiting enemies. One of the paintings I found especially interesting featured a st ..read more

Today, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will pass over much of the United States. The last visible solar eclipse in the U.S. occurred in 1979, preceded by another eclipse in 1918. This celestial event has (obviously) been a popular topic of conversation lately, so I thought I’d take the time today to explore the significance of eclipses and solar events in Egyptian history and mythology. For the ancient Egyptians, the sun god Ra (Re) played a vitally important role in maintaining peace and order in the universe. Each night when the sun set, Ra and his solar barque would descend into the ..read more

For this week's Thutmose Tuesday, we're taking a look at Central Park's oldest attraction: Cleopatra's Needle. It probably won't surprise you to learn that this 70-foot-tall ancient obelisk has nothing to do with Cleopatra VII. It was built for another Egyptian ruler more than 1,000 years before the Ptolemaic queen's birth, one whose name should be quite familiar at this point: Thutmose III. To mark his 30th year on the throne, Thutmose commissioned the construction of two twin obelisks, which would be erected at the temple of Ra in Heliopolis. Over the years, two additional kings (Ramesses I ..read more

Fashion fit for a pharaoh! Today, we'll be looking at a simple yet intriguing facet of 18th Dynasty life: clothing. For an ancient Egyptian king, clothing, crowns, and other accessories were symbols of power and status, which usually also had specific symbolic meaning. Although Egyptian fashion evolved quite a bit over the centuries, this Thutmose Tuesday we'll be focusing strictly on the type of garments a Thutmoside/New Kingdom pharaoh would have worn. Nearly all ancient Egyptian garments were constructed from white linen, a material well-suited for living and working in a desert climate. L ..read more

What's a king without his queen(s)? For this week's Thutmose Tuesday, we'll be taking a look at the royal harem, a facet of ancient Egyptian court life that took on a particular significance during the New Kingdom. Every 18th Dynasty king (save Hatshepsut) had a harem, including our old friends Thutmose I, II, III, and IV. Far more than simply a pleasure palace, the royal harem served a variety of political purposes, helping to ensure Egypt's political stability both at home and abroad. Royal polygamy in ancient Egypt was endorsed not for religious reasons, but for practical ones: with high i ..read more

For our first official foray into Egyptian mythology, I thought I'd share one of the most popular stories from the ancient Egyptian religious tradition: the Osiris Myth. It's got it all, from murder, to betrayal, to incest, to dismembered bodies. Our tale begins with the five children of Geb (the earth god) and Nut (the sky goddess): Isis, Osiris, Set, Nephthys, and Horus. (In some versions, Horus is cited as the son of Isis and Osiris instead). According to the ancient Egyptians, these deities ruled over primeval Egypt, with Osiris reigning as the first-ever pharaoh and Isis as his queen. Un ..read more

Mummies sure do turn up in the oddest of places! Today, we're going to be talking about "mummy caches," hidden tombs and caves used for the express purpose of concealing and protecting the remains of Egyptian pharaohs. Because this is Thutmose Tuesday, we'll be talking about one (very famous) cache in particular: DB320. Officially discovered in 1881 and located in the cliffs behind Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri, DB320 (also referred to as TT320) appears to be no more than a hole in the ground. In reality however, this 30-foot deep shaft marks the entrance to a series of underground cha ..read more

One of the most controversial rulers in ancient Egyptian history, Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV) was never meant to be king. The second son of pharaoh Amenhotep III (and grandson of Thutmose IV), he was preceded in the line of succession by his elder brother Prince Thutmose. After Thutmose's untimely demise, however, Prince Amenhotep found himself in the royal spotlight, and following Amenhotep III's death in 1353 B.C.E., he was crowned pharaoh. Over the course of his 17-year-reign, the king would usher in a new era in Egyptian history, a time of religious and cultural reform that some cal ..read more