Ram of Amun Protecting Amenhotep III

In the 8th century BC Egypt was conquered from the south. Kings from Kush, in what is now Sudan, took the country and ruled it as its 25th Dynasty, and they were fervent worshippers of Amun. The museum thinks this ram may have travelled with them, northwards. It was found in the temple of Mut at Karnak, but it may first have stood far up the Nile at Soleb in Nubia, where Amenhotep III, who reigned from 1390 to 1353 BC, built a temple for Amun-Ra and where similar rams have been found. If so, it was brought to Thebes during that dynasty, more than 600 years after it was carved.

The ram was Amun's sacred animal. Between its front legs stands a small figure of Amenhotep III in the form of Osiris, sheltered by the god. On top of the head is a hollow. It once held a sun disc and a cobra made of metal, which joined Amun to the sun god Ra, and both are lost.