Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)

Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This unusual piece is composed of eight fragments, including a cast of one piece now in the British Museum; all of the pieces were found in the Sanctuary of the Great Aten Temple or in the dump south of the Sanctuary area of the temple. The double cartouches of the Aten's early name are presented by the two hands of a figure that is now missing. Karnak reliefs depicted the king at a window of appearance presenting / proclaiming the 'didactic' names of the Aten with this gesture. These hands and cartouches in a very fine indurated limestone appear to have belonged to a very special statue at Amarna reiterating this presentation.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)Hands offering Aten cartouches (upper part of cartouches are a cast of British Museum EA 58471)

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.