Fragment from the Head of a Queen's Statue

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The vulture headdress identified the woman who was depicted on this fragment as an Egyptian queen. Above the ear and around the forehead is a band from which rows of small feathers emerge, followed by the bird’s long wing feathers, which cover the top of the head. At the back of the head, one of the vulture’s legs is preserved, its claw clutching a shen-(dominion) hieroglyph. The lady wears the vulture headdress over a wig arranged in horizontal waves, a hairstyle that was common only in the early Old Kingdom. Its appearance here underlines the venerable nature of the queen’s costume.

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