Kohl Jar Inscribed for Hatshepsut as God's Wife

Kohl Jar Inscribed for Hatshepsut as God's Wife

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This kohl jar imitates a bundle of reeds. A flat lid (now missing) once swiveled around a metal pin, a piece of which still remains in the hole. Inscribed with the title "God's Wife," the elegant vessel could not have been part of Hatshepsut's final burial equipment but must have been made during the queen's marriage to Thutmose II or during the first years of her joint reign with Thutmose III. She probably gave it to a valued courtier or a family member. We have no means of ascertaining whether she used the little vase herself before she passed it on as a royal gift.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kohl Jar Inscribed for Hatshepsut as God's WifeKohl Jar Inscribed for Hatshepsut as God's WifeKohl Jar Inscribed for Hatshepsut as God's WifeKohl Jar Inscribed for Hatshepsut as God's WifeKohl Jar Inscribed for Hatshepsut as God's Wife

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.