Shabti of Ptahmes, an official under Ramesses II, from Saqqara in the Louvre

An ancient Egyptian ritual statuette made for a high-ranking official named Ptahmose, who lived in the New Kingdom, in the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II.

Ptahmose was a royal scribe, steward of the royal estates and mayor of Memphis.

The shabti, that is, the funerary figurine, of Ptahmose is dressed in the costume of the living, and not in the form of a swaddled mummy, as is more often the case. He wears a ceremonial pleated outfit of kilt and long-sleeved shirt, an elaborate wig and sandals. His arms are crossed on his chest and hold ritual flails.

This figurine was found in the Saqqara necropolis beneath the sarcophagus of a sacred Apis bull, buried in the 30th year of the reign of Ramesses II.

Today this masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art is kept in the collection of the Louvre

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The Venetian Church of Santo Stefano with an Apse Built over a Canal in the 15th Century

The Rio del Santissimo di Santo Stefano in Venice is a canal that runs literally beneath the apse of the Gothic church of Santo Stefano. The arch under the church is so low that the canal is impassable at high tide or during high water. The church itself was completed

Black-and-white photograph of Catherine Deneuve in a dark swimsuit sitting on the stone edge of a pool, arms around her knee, feet in the water.

Catherine Deneuve on the set of Jean Aurel's film “Manon 70” in October 1967

Catherine Deneuve in October 1967, during the shooting of the film "Manon 70" directed by Jean Aurel

Anthony Lookout's book on the Osage Tilton and Grace Entoka from Nebraska

Let me tell you about an interesting book. The University of Nebraska Press has published Tilton and Grace Entoka: An Osage Story by the writer Anthony Lookout. The Osage are one of the indigenous peoples of North America; the book is devoted to Native storytellers and appears in the series

A 1941 Enigma I Cipher Machine Sold at Bonhams for More Than £200,000

An Enigma I cipher machine sold for more than £200,000 The auction house Bonhams put the machine, made for the German army around 1941, up for sale in its online auction "Espionage: Fact and Fiction". The Enigma was an electromechanical machine that turned the plain text of

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The Venetian Church of Santo Stefano with an Apse Built over a Canal in the 15th Century

Catherine Deneuve on the set of Jean Aurel's film “Manon 70” in October 1967

Anthony Lookout's book on the Osage Tilton and Grace Entoka from Nebraska

A 1941 Enigma I Cipher Machine Sold at Bonhams for More Than £200,000