Egyptian Wig Cover in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2007

Wig Cover
Dynasty 18, reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1479-1425 BC)
Gold, gesso carnelian, jasper, glass
From the Tomb of the Three Minor Wives of Thutmose III in the Waddy Gabbanat el-Qurud, Thebes

Accession Numbers:
26.8.117a
58.153.1-3
66.2.1
66.2.7
1970.169.80
1982.137.1

The jewelry elements from which this intriguing object is composed were found separately. The present assemblage is a suggested reconstruction based on the shapes of the elements and the various rings and joints attached to them.

On top of the head is a fan-shaped plate on which palm fronds or feathers are chased. The cloisons between them were originally inlaid with Egyptian blue frit. Rings along the edges may have attached strips of rosettes to the head plate. The rosettes and other elements were inlaid with carnelian, occasional pieces of jasper, and many glass elements whose original turquiose and blue color has largely faded.

Flowers and feathers are age-old elements of queens' crowns, although in most cases the feathers on top of such crowns are in upright position. If the reconstruction here presented is correct, this headdress with its two-dimensional feather head plate, was made for the mummy of one of Thutmose's minor wives, since the narrow space of a coffin would not have accommodated a crown of upright feathers. Pictorial representations of feather crowns in New Kingdom court life indicate that they were worn by queens and priestesses at occasion when the pharaoh's divine nature was invoked.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.