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Egyptian art galleryEgyptian funerary art, Thoth, and a temple beside Mercury

This gallery is a curated set of public-domain Egyptian works from The Met collection, interpreted as a house of writing and night sky beside the planet Mercury. It is not a Met exhibition and not a partnership. Each object page cites the museum record and links to the original collection page.

Mercury 91 is not affiliated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Images and object data shown here are public-domain Open Access (CC0) records from The Met collection. Citations are given so you can visit each work on the museum site.

Create an account to enter the templeI already have an account

Egyptian art already thinks in skies. Nut is a body of stars. The sun has a night boat. Coffin lids carry decans. Scribes keep the hours. That is why a cosmic product can host this material without pretending to be a museum.

Thoth, ibis-headed inventor of writing, is the hinge. Greeks met a version of him as Hermes. Romans named a planet Mercury. Mercury 91 already tells that mythic chain on the Mercury planet guide. This gallery is the art-historical room next door: actual objects, public-domain photographs, and essays that refuse borrowed authority.

Guests can read every page. People with a Mercury 91 account can fly to the Temple of Thoth in the 3D universe, a small pylon court hanging just outside Mercury’s orbit, where the same works appear as stelae. The catalog is one list. The two surfaces share it.

How to visit this Egyptian art gallery

  1. Step 1

    Read the object essays

    Each work has a unique interpretation plus a full museum citation. Start with Thoth, Nauny’s Book of the Dead, Hatshepsut, or Dendur.

  2. Step 2

    Walk by period on this hub

    The grid below is grouped from the Old Kingdom to Roman Egypt so the timeline stays visible.

  3. Step 3

    Enter the Temple of Thoth

    If you have an account, open the universe with the temple deep link. The 3D hang is members-only because the full universe already is. These pages stay public.

Inner court highlights

Egyptian funerary art and related works by period

Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom

Middle Kingdom

New Kingdom

Amarna and the late Eighteenth Dynasty

Late Period to Roman Egypt

Egyptian art gallery questions

Is Mercury 91 affiliated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art?
Mercury 91 is not affiliated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Images and object data shown here are public-domain Open Access (CC0) records from The Met collection. Citations are given so you can visit each work on the museum site.
Are these images free to view and reuse?
The photographs used here are Open Access images The Met believes are in the public domain, dedicated under Creative Commons Zero. We still cite title, date, medium, accession number, credit line, and the Met collection URL on every page.
Why Egyptian art next to the planet Mercury?
Egyptian tradition links Thoth with writing, the moon, and the recording of souls. Later readers connected Thoth with Hermes, and Hermes with the planet Mercury. This gallery follows that interpretive chain. It does not claim a historical Egyptian cult of the planet Mercury.
Can I see these works in the 3D universe without an account?
No. The Temple of Thoth is inside the full universe, which requires signup and entitlement. The essays, images, and citations on /egyptian-art stay freely readable.
Is this the complete Egyptian collection of The Met?
No. The Met Egyptian Art department is vast. This is a hand-picked Open Access set of a few dozen works chosen for writing, afterlife, royal portraiture, temple sky, and daily life. Thin auto-generated dumps of thousands of IDs would not help readers or rankings.

Related pages

Mercury mythology

Hermes, Thoth, and the messenger god

Mercury planet guide

Astronomy and Egyptian Thoth notes

The Dreamers gallery

Cosmic dream visuals from the community

Universe explorer

Temple of Thoth inside the 3D universe

Exhibitions

Seasonal creator residencies