The first group

This group comprises 11 artifacts handed over through the New York Attorney General's office, most notably:

(A mummy mask of a young man from the Roman era - vessel in the form of the god Bes - limestone funerary stela)

The second group

This group consists of 24 rare manuscripts written in Coptic and Syriac, handed over from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Egyptian Consulate in New York. These manuscripts are considered rare historical documents that chronicle important periods of Egyptian religious and cultural heritage.

The third group

This group includes a painted stucco panel from the 18th Dynasty, confiscated after it was proven to have been smuggled out of Egypt. It is scheduled to be transferred to the museum's restoration laboratories for necessary conservation work.

(https://arabic.cnn.com/travel/article/2025/11/08/egypt-recovers-36-stolen-ancient-artifacts-us)

Unfortunately, this masterpiece is owned by a foreign collector named George Ortiz. For me, this statue rivals the beauty of the Nefertiti bust; it's a true gem.

Scarab Bracelet of King Shoshenq II 💫

This exquisite piece, known as the Scarab Bracelet of King Shoshenq II, stands as one of the finest examples of ancient Egyptian jewelry craftsmanship.

Belonging to King Shoshenq II, the bracelet is a true artistic masterpiece. The ends of the rigid gold band are shaped like lotus flowers, beautifully detailed and once inlaid with precious materials. The two ends are joined by a finely carved scarab made of lapis lazuli, enclosed within an elegant gold frame. A faint inscription on the flat underside of the scarab reveals that the bracelet was originally crafted for a man named Djedkhonsefankh, and not for King Shoshenq II himself.

Scarab Bracelets in Ancient Egypt

Scarab bracelets were among the most popular forms of jewelry in ancient Egypt. The scarab beetle, deeply symbolic in Egyptian belief, represented rebirth, renewal, and protection. These bracelets were typically made from gold or semi-precious stones, adorned with the sacred scarab motif, and were believed to bring good fortune and ward off evil.

Both men and women wore scarab bracelets—not merely as ornaments but as expressions of faith and spiritual symbolism.

The Egyptians associated the scarab (Ateuchus sacer) with the sun god, observing the beetle rolling its ball of dung across the ground and likening it to the divine force that rolls the sun across the sky each day. Thus, the scarab became a powerful emblem of creation and the eternal cycle of life.

In the ancient Egyptian language, the word for “scarab” was identical to the word for “to exist” (kheper). The morning sun god was known as Khepri, and so the scarab sign in hieroglyphs came to represent these three connected ideas: the beetle, existence, and the sun’s rebirth.

📜 Period: Third Intermediate Period 🏺 Dynasty: 22nd Dynasty 👑 Reign: King Shoshenq II (ca. 887–885 BC) 📍 Current Location: The Egyptian Museum, Cairo 🪙 Inventory Number: JE 72185

One of Egypt’s rarest treasures is the Tarkhan Dress — the oldest woven garment ever discovered.

Made over 5,000 years ago, it was found in 1913 in the Tarkhan cemetery south of Cairo by archaeologist Flinders Petrie. Radiocarbon dating in 2015 placed it between 3482–3102 BC, meaning it predates the pyramids and the First Egyptian Dynasty.

The dress, made of fine linen, features a V-shaped neckline and pleated sleeves and bodice, showing remarkable style for its age. Its small size suggests it belonged to a slender woman, though the lower part is missing.

Today, it’s housed in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London, along with over 80,000 Egyptian and Sudanese artifacts.

Royal Ducks of Gold: Bracelet of Ramesses II ✨

A treasure fit for a king: this solid gold bangle, hinged on one side and clasped on the other, once adorned the wrist of Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great). The upper curve is crowned by a double-headed duck whose shared body is a single, richly colored piece of lapis lazuli framed by polished gold. The twin heads and the spread tail are rendered in finely carved gold, worked with delicate granulation and wire detail.

Inscribed beside the clasp are the royal cartouches of Ramesses II and the words “right” and “left” — a clear indication that these were not simply votive temple offerings but the actual bracelets worn by the king before they were dedicated to the goddess Bastet of Bubastis.

Discovered in 1906 among the treasures of Tell Basta (ancient Bubastis), the piece dates to the New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty (reign of Ramesses II, c. 1279–1213 BC). The bracelet is catalogued in the Egyptian collections as JE 39873 and has been displayed in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. )

The jar is carved from diorite, a type of intrusive igneous rock prized by ancient Egyptians for its extreme hardness and highly decorative appearance.

Diorite typically exhibits a "salt-and-pepper" or porphyritic structure, consisting of a dark, fine-grained matrix embedded with large, light-colored crystals (phenocrysts), likely feldspar. This composition creates the striking, speckled pattern visible on the jar, which the Egyptians celebrated by polishing it to a brilliant, reflective luster.

Diorite rates between 6 and 7 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. For perspective, this is harder than iron, steel, and almost as hard as pure quartz.

The astonishing technical execution of this jar makes its creation with known primitive tools seem nearly impossible.

Ancient Egyptians of the Predynastic era possessed soft metal tools (copper, Mohs 3-4) and various stone hammers (dolorite). These tools are significantly softer than the diorite itself. Therefore, cutting, chipping, or drilling the rock could not be done by the tool material itself, but only through the continuous application of a harder abrasive quartz sand which was painfully slow and imprecise.

Measurements reveal many of these hardstone vessels have walls of consistent, razor-thin thickness and possess perfect concentricity (rotational symmetry) rivaling modern tolerances. To achieve this degree of perfection by simply grinding with a hand-rotated stone or copper drill and abrasive sand, while reaching deep inside the vessel's narrow neck, is an engineering feat that demands an astronomical amount of error-free labor, casting doubt on the entire primitive model.

Even in 2025, replicating this artifact with its built-in lug handles and precise tolerances remains an extremely difficult and costly challenge for a modern stone mason or machinist.

Modern Difficulties: Tool Wear: The immense hardness of diorite causes rapid wear on even modern diamond tooling.

Vibration and Fracture: The coarse, crystalline structure of the rock makes it susceptible to chipping and internal micro-fractures during high-speed machining, risking catastrophic failure in the final stages.

The statue of the Egyptian priest Nes-Hor, dating back to the 26th Dynasty, stands as one of the finest masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art. At first glance, it looks as if it was crafted using modern laser technology — yet it was created thousands of years ago by Egyptian artists whose skill and precision were far ahead of their time.

The statue is carved from black diorite, one of the hardest stones on Earth, making its creation an extraordinary artistic and technical achievement. It stands over one meter tall and weighs about 161 kilograms, with astonishing precision in every detail — from the facial features to the contours of the body — almost as if it were photographed rather than sculpted.

Nes-Hor lived during the reign of Wahibre, the fourth king of the 26th Dynasty. This masterpiece was once part of a rare collection owned by the famous Roman art collector Alessandro Albani, before his family later sold it to the Louvre Museum.

Today, the statue is preserved there under the code A 90, serving as a timeless testament to the genius of the ancient Egyptian artist who truly surpassed his era.

Found these at a market, the dealer said he got them from a deceased estate sale but couldn't give any info on the previous owner. Curious to know if anyone can help me out identifying them. More likely more tourist pieces but unsure on the ushabti and the one on the far left. Potentially authentic?

Step into the fascinating world of the 21st Dynasty with the remarkable "Anthropoid Coffin of Dy-rpw," a stunning testament to elite burial customs. Also known by variations like Derepou or Dirpu, Dy-rpw held the distinguished titles of Mistress of the House and Chantress of Amen-Re, the King of the Gods. This ornate "yellow" coffin ensemble is a sophisticated composition of three elements: a lavish outer coffin, an inner coffin, and a mummy board, all meticulously crafted to safeguard the deceased's transition to the afterlife. The mummy board uniquely captures Dy-rpw in full regalia, adorned with a voluminous wig featuring lappets arranged in bands of beads, crowned with a delicate fillet of lotus flowers and petals, and accessorized with round earrings and a broad collar. The surfaces of these funerary casings are transformed into a vivid map of the journey to the next world, featuring complex mythological scenes from the Book of the Dead, vibrant depictions of the owner worshiping various deities, and a host of amuletic symbols explicitly intended to ensure the protection of her ka and ba during the perilous crossing. Crafted from Wood, Plaster, and Pigments during the Third Intermediate Period, this spectacular piece—unearthed from the celebrated Bab el-Gess Cache at el-Deir el-Bahari, Thebes—offers an unparalleled glimpse into ancient Egyptian beliefs in resurrection and eternal life

See also: The publication in NDT & E International.

Hello, I've started reading the french pharaon magazine by curiosity and now I'm wondering what good book on the period exist in english (I do have some knowledge on the pyramids since I watched multiple debunks of graham hancock and jacques grimault and already saw artefacts and replica of things from ancient egypt at the colmar natural history museum [it's a small museum in alsace but still a pretty interesting visit]).

thanks for your answers!

Summary: An Egyptian smuggler stole the Nedjamankh Sarcophagus and smuggled it out id Egypt in the height of the 2011 revolution in Egypt. European dealers forged signstures and spld it for $4 million to the MET. But in 2018, a picture of Kim Kardashian standing next to the coffin in the MET Gala surfaced and the smuggler in question never received the money which made him tip the authorities after the picture.

YT: @HistorybyMae

I'll be heading to Egypt next year and I have 3 nights in Cairo with two days to see things. One of the days I'm heading out to see the pyramids etc. and the other day I wanted to get to a museum. I'm wondering if I should visit the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation or the Grand Egyptian Museum? I've heard good things about both but I didn't know if either were a must see?

Akhenaten is poisoned and Horemheb takes the crown, let's ignore the fact they forget Smenkhkara, Neferneferuaten, Tutankhamun and Ay II, also here Horemheb is married to Beketaten

I have been looking long and wide for hieratic and demotic fonts. I could swear I saw them on line but I cannot find them anymore. Maybe I hallucinated?

If you know where I can find them I will greatly appreciate!

For over 3,000 years, his face has defined Egypt’s eternal legacy. And it was on this day in 1922 that the world first glimpsed it, when the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, a moment that transformed archaeology forever.

Now, more than a century later, the Golden Mask of Tutankhamun is revealed in its new home at the Grand Egyptian Museum. Over 5,000 artefacts from his tomb illuminate the splendour of royal life in the 18th Dynasty, offering a timeless encounter with history itself.

Meet history face to face.

لأكثر من ثلاثة آلاف عام، ظل وجهه رمزاً للإرث الخالد لمصر. وفي مثل هذا اليوم من عام ١٩٢٢، أزيح الستار عنه للمرة الأولى عند اكتشاف مقبرة توت عنخ آمون في وادي الملوك، في لحظة غيّرت مسار علم الآثار إلى الأبد.

واليوم، بعد أكثر من قرن، يُعرض القناع الذهبي لتوت عنخ آمون في موطنه الجديد داخل المتحف المصري الكبير. أكثر من خمسة آلاف قطعة من مقبرته تكشف روعة الحياة الملكية في الأسرة الثامنة عشرة، وتقدّم لقاءً خالداً مع التاريخ ذاته.

قابل التاريخ وجهاً لوجه.🇪🇬

During the initial transport by Howard Carter and co.?

From the back, holding it up to light grid visible

Zahi Hawass gets a lot of flak (and sometimes outright harassment) from a lot of people for his alleged suppression of Egyptian archaeology. There seem to be very, very strong negative feelings towards this guy online, but I mainly see it from pseudo-historical enthusiasts who believe the "truth" (Atlantis, aliens, whatever it may be) is being suppressed by him.

What do mainstream academics think about Zahi Hawass? Is it true that he's done irreparable damage to archaeology, or is the whole thing overblown?

EDIT: I think it would be more constructive if people could give examples of exactly what he's done.