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Neues Museum, Berlin
Museum, Museums outside Egypt · also called Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Egyptian Museum Berlin, Neues Museum Museumsinsel
Berlin's Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection fills the Neues Museum on Museum Island, and its Amarna rooms let you read the cartouches of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their god, the Aten. Around them are offering stelae, coffins and papyri from every period of the script.
The heart of the collection comes from Amarna, the short-lived capital of Akhenaten. A German expedition dug there before the First World War and found the workshop of a sculptor called Thutmose. Many of his studies, finished and unfinished, are here. Their inscriptions are few. The reliefs and stelae beside them carry the royal names.
Amarna writing has its own look. The Aten, the sun disc Akhenaten worshipped, has a name long enough to fill two cartouches, and it often sits above the royal family with rays ending in small hands. Some hands hold an ankh to the noses of the king and queen. Once you know the shape of the Aten's cartouches, you can pick them out across a room.
The building itself was badly damaged in the Second World War and stood as a ruin for decades. It reopened in 2009 after a restoration by David Chipperfield, who kept the scars. Old wall paintings survive in some rooms, so the walls can be as interesting as the cases.
At Neues Museum, Berlin
Inscriptions to see
Bust of Nefertiti
The painted queen in a domed room of her own. The bust itself is uninscribed.
House altar of the Amarna royal family
A small limestone stela with Akhenaten and Nefertiti playing with three daughters under the Aten. Cartouches of the god and the couple fill the space between the rays.
Head of Queen Tiye
A small head of Akhenaten's mother in dark wood. Her name appears in cartouches on Amarna objects nearby.
Papyrus collection
One of the world's great papyrus collections. Light harms papyrus, so the sheets on show change from time to time.
Names you can find here
Signs to look for
- Sun N5rꜥ The sun disc ends the name of the Aten and of Akhenaten in every Amarna cartouche.
- Crested ibis G25ꜣḫ The crested ibis (akh) opens Akhenaten's name, 'useful to the Aten'.
- Heart and windpipe F35nfr The heart and windpipe (nefer, 'beautiful') begins Nefertiti's name, often more than once.
- Cartouche V10 The cartouche rings the royal names on the house altar and the Amarna reliefs.
- Bread on an offering mat R4ḥtp Bread on a mat (hotep) starts the offering formula on the stelae in the side galleries.
Reading the hieroglyphs here
- Photography has long been banned in the Nefertiti room; check the sign at the door and photograph the inscribed reliefs elsewhere.
- On the Amarna reliefs, find the two cartouches of the Aten first, then the king's two and the queen's one beside them.
- Press your phone close to the glass and tilt it slightly to cut reflections.
Point your camera at a wall Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.
Questions
Is the Bust of Nefertiti in the Neues Museum or the Egyptian Museum in Berlin?
Both names are right. The Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection is housed in the Neues Museum on Museum Island, and the bust is its most famous piece.
Are there hieroglyphs in the Neues Museum?
Yes, on stelae, reliefs, statues, coffins and papyri. Most stelae open with the offering formula, good practice for a beginner.
Where it is
Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.