The Ancient Collection at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska

The Ancient Collection at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.
Joslyn Art Museum’s collection of antiquities includes objects from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, among them a portrait bust of the Egyptian princess Amenirdas I, a Roman bust of Augustus re-carved from an earlier portrait of Nero, and a respected group of Greek pottery, including an Attic Black-Figure Amphora attributed to The Omaha Painter, and an Italo-Corinthian Olpe attributed to The Joslyn Painter.


Image: Sculpture of Amenirdas I, daughter of King Kashta of Nubia, Late 8th century BCE 25th dynasty. Amenirdas came to Egypt with the successful invasion of her brother, King Piankhi of Kush in 716–715 B.C. At the time of the Kushite conquest, Shepenupet I, daughter of the last native king, held the supreme religious office of the land at Thebes, which had long been the spiritual capital of Egypt. Shepenupet was compelled to adopt the Kushite princess, who henceforth as Amenirdas I became the Divine Consort, earthly bride of the state god, Amun. This act lent legitimacy to the claim of Piankhi as the first foreigner in a thousand years to become ruler of a large part of Egypt.

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