Mud Brick Stamped with the Royal Names of Aakheperkare (Thutmose I) and Maatkare (Hatshepsut)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragmentary mud brick is stamped with a seal that combines the throne names of Hatshepsut (right) and of her father Thutmose I (left). Each royal name is written in a cartouche and followed by an epithet. The inscription reads (right to left) Maat-ka-re, given life; Aa-Kheper-ka-re, justified (true of voice). These epithets indicate that Hatshepsut lives and that her father is deceased. The two rulers are symbolically united by having their names and epithets enclosed in a large cartouche. The same seal impression was used to stamp another brick in the collection (90.6.42) The bricks probably came from Hatshepsut's funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri in Western Thebes. On the south side of the upper terrace are chapels dedicated to the funerary cult of each king.

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