Cobra Head

Cobra Head

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This head of a cobra is made out of Egyptian faience, a glazed non-clay ceramic material. The eyes of the bulky head must originally have been inlaid, possibly with semi-precious stones, which would have given the head a very lively look. A broad groove on the bottom of the piece shows that it was originally slid into position. The cobra head was probably originally part of a frieze of protective uraei that belonged to a piece of wooden furniture. Such a construction is known from furniture of Tutankhamun. The cobra head might have belonged to the burial equipment of another king of this period.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.