Uraeus for freize

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

When a cobra is threatened, it raises its upper body and inflates its hood. In ancient Egypt the rearing cobra (also called an uraeus) was seen as protection and was also associated with a number of goddesses. Deities or royals often wear an uraeus on their foreheads as protection and to indicate their divine or royal status. A frieze of rearing cobras was often used as a protective and decorative element for furniture or architecture. The piece here and one like it (17.192.46) were possibly part of such a frieze.

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