Ancient Egypt

The stripes of the nemes headdress are made of blue glass in imitation of lapis lazuli, and the same material has been used for the inlay of the plaited false beard. The vulture's head upon the brow, symbolizing sovereignty over Upper Egypt, is also made of solid gold, apart from the beak, which is made of horn-colored glass, and the inlay of the eyes, which is missing. By its side is the cobra, symbolizing sovereignty over Lower Egypt, its body made of solid gold, its head of dark blue faience, its eyes of gold cloisonne inlaid with translucent quartz backed with a red pigment, and its hood inlaid with carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise-colored glass, and quartz. The eyebrows, eyelids, and kohl marks extending sideways from the eyes are made of lapis lazuli and the eyes of quartz and obsidian. Caruncles (small red patches) are shown on the inner and outer canthi of the eyes - a frequent mistake in Egyptian reproductions of the human eye, which in nature shows a caruncle on the inner canthus only. The lobes of the ears are pierced for earrings, but when the mask was found the holes were covered with disks of gold foil. A triple-string necklace of gold and faience disk beads has also been removed from the mask in order to reveal the neck. On the chest, extending from shoulder to shoulder, is a broad collar encrusted with segments of lapis lazuli, quartz, and green feldspar with a lotus-bud border of colored-glass cloisonne work. At each end of the collar is a terminal in the form of a falcon's head of gold encrusted with obsidian and colored glass.

There were many different types of priest and priestess in ancient Egypt, with a strict system of ranks and responsibilities.

Unlike Christian priests, their job was not to preach or to influence the minds of ordinary people - they simply existed to serve the gods in different ways. In effect, the priests gave offerings to the gods on behalf of Pharaoh, who could not cope alone with the sheer number of offerings required.

The basic requirement for a novice priest was circumcision. The entire body must then be shaved and kept permanently free of all hair, including having the eyebrows and lashes removed regularly. Priests were forbidden certain foods, including beef, pork, mutton, pigeon, fish, beans, garlic and all green stuff. The point of all of this was for a priest to be completely "clean" in a religious sense - the general term for a low-ranking priest was wb, meaning purified.

Clothing had to be made from clean, fine linen and cut according to ancient patterns; on their feet they always wore white sandals. Higher ranks of priest wore special items such as a ribbon across the chest, a leopard-skin, a special necklace or a long fake plait attached to the bald head. Lector-priests wore two large feathers attached to their heads.

Some priestesses served as temple musicians, singers and dancers.

The Egyptian pharaoh, Rameses II lived approximately 1290 to 1224 BCE.

The only information we have on Moses is from the Bible, which provides two quite distinct ways of estimating when Moses would have lived, neither of which coincides with the life of Rameses II.

According to the Bible, Moses was the grandson of Kohath, who was alive at the time of the migration from Canaan and lived 133 years, while his son Amran lived 137 years. At the extremes of biological possibility, and assuming the patriarchs really lived to improbably great ages, Moses was born sometime between 15 years and 270 years after the arrival in Egypt and, living to the age of 120 years, died between 135 and 390 years after the arrival. On these calculations, Moses was born between about 1850 and 1600 BCE, and died between about 1730 and 1480 BCE.

According to the Bible, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, around 1440 BCE, and died about 40 years later, having lived 120 years. On these calculations, Moses was born about 1520 BCE and died about 1400 BCE.

On this evidence, Rameses II and Moses could not have grown up together, as Ramesis lived centuries after the time attributed to Moses. Moreover, over ninety per cent of scholars are reported as believing the Exodus did not really happen, thus casting doubt on the very existence of Moses.