Cup of Nesikhonsu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This cup made of blue faience belonged to Nesikhonsu, the wife of the High Priest of Amun Pinedjem II. A hieroglyphic inscription names Nesikhonsu and gives her the title "Osiris, Great Leader of the First Music Troupe of Amun" – a group of female musicians serving Amun-Re in his Karnak temple. It was one of 70 ritual cups that were used for libation rituals during Nesikhonsu’s funeral and buried within her tomb afterwards. Nesikhonsu was buried in Theban Tomb no. 320 (TT 320) in Deir el-Bahari, otherwise known as the "Royal Cache." This mass burial also contained the bodies and funerary equipment of several family members, as well as more than fifty royal mummies from the New Kingdom, who had been re-buried following several tomb robberies in the Valley of Kings during the 21st Dynasty.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art