The centrepiece of the gallery is the Shrine of King Taharqa. From 13 Nov 2026 it will be illuminated in colour in a new digital installation, revealing how this extraordinary ancient Kushite monument may once have looked.
It was originally built around 680 BCE as part of the temple complex at Kawa in Nubia (ancient Sudan) which had been restored by King Taharqa, in honour of the god Amun. In its original state the carved sandstone reliefs would have been painted in bright colours, but after the temple was abandoned the combination of wind and sand took its toll.
In order to try to convey the shrine's original setting in the temple complex, the outlines of four columns has been incorporated into the gallery layout following the curved indents in the wall of the shrine.
The shrine was dismantled and brought back to Oxford in 1936 in hundreds of wooden crates and rebuilt where you see it now, on a foundation two metres deep to hold its enormous weight.
The life-size statue of the Ram of Amun, positioned in the opening through to the next gallery, would have originally flanked (along with its companion) one of the thresholds in the temple complex. The base is carved with a hieroglyphic inscription proclaiming Taharqa to be the son of Amun. A small figure of Taharqa stands protected under the ram’s chin.
Other displays in this gallery chart the progress of ancient Egyptian culture from the funerary concerns of Old Kingdom officials (c. 2575–1975 BCE), through the monumental building projects of Middle Kingdom kings (c. 1975–1640 BCE), to Egypt’s relationship with other civilisations on its borders (to c. 1540 BCE) including a display of an entire Pan-Grave burial assemblage.
The gallery also displays the Ashmolean's collections from ancient Sudan, which are the most significant in Britain.
