Funerary Jewelry, Dynasty 18


Gold Collars, Pectorals and Amulets
Dynasty 18, reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1479-1425 BCE)
Sheet gold
From the tomb of the three minor wives of Thutmose III in the Wady Gabbanat el-Qurud, Thebes
Fletcher Fund,1926 (26.8.101-102, 104-105, 214, 216)


(From info cards):
Funerary Equipment Belonging to Three Foreign Wives of Thutmose III
"In this gallery one of the most comprehensive surviving sets of ancient Egyptian jewelry is exhibited. It was discovered, together with the vessels and other objects also displayed here, in a rock-cut cave situated high up in the desert mountain cliffs of the Wday Gabbanat el-Qurud in western Thebes. The find encompassed the remains of the burials of three minor wives of King Thutmose III whose names, Maruta, Manhata, and Manuwai, written on the canopic jars, libation vessels and heart scarabs, are not Egyptian, but in all probability Semetic. Maruta may, in fact, be the hieroglyphic version of the familiar Hebrew and Aramaic name Marta.

"According to the custom of the time the three women must have entered the pharoah's household in the course of political transactions with a foreign ruler somewhere in the Levant. After a life in Egypt the three women were buried together according to Egyptian burial customs.

"The items displayed in this case were made for the funeral of the three ladies. Many of them fall easily into sets of three. But lacking inscriptions we do not know which of the queens owned which."

(I have just a sampling of those items here.)

"The gold wire with duck-head terminals may have been strung through the loops at the crest of the falcon heads on the upper collar, allowing it to be hung around the neck. The vulture has no rings for attachment and would simply have been placed within the wrappings of the mummy, as would the lower amulet, which represents a piece of folded linen."