Jewelry Box and Jewelry, 12th Dyn


Jewelry chest of Sithathoryunet
Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret II - Amenemhat III (ca. 1887-1813 BCE)
Ivory, gold, carnelian (restored: copper-alloy knobs, silver, faience, one carnelian inlay, and all the wood)
From El-Lahun, tomb 8, chamber E; Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaelogy in Egypt excavations, 1914
Purchase, Rogers Fund and Henry Walters Gift, 1916, MMA 16.1.1


Side view showing the shaped lid...


As I am short, I missed this perspective showing four emblems of the goddess Hathor. (Museum photo)

The museum website says that because Hathor is "the goddess of beauty", the four emblems are especially "appropriate symbols for a cosmetic box." But there's more here. The very name of Princess Sithathoryunet, whose box this was, means “daughter of Hathor of Dendera”.


The ancients called "Dendera" "Iunet", (Source: Wikipedia


Cropped from Museum photo

(From info card)
"The decoration is composed of alterating djed pillars and symbolic 'false doors,' also known from sarcophagi and the architecture of mastaba tombs.

The excavators concluded from the position of the objects that this box must have been fitted with a shallow tray for the mirror (now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) and a drawer with two compartments. The razors, 'rouge dish,' and whetstones in the case would have been in one compartment and the jewelry in the two opposite cases in the other."

Fortunately, I did photograph a few of those other items:


Cowrie-Shell Girdle of Sithathoryunet
Gold, carnelian, feldspar, pellets of copper-silver alloy, l. 84 cm (33 1/16 in)
From El-Lahun, tomb 8, chamber E; box 1; Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaelogy in Egypt excavations, 1914
Purchase, Rogers Fund and Henry Walters Gift, 1916, MMA 16.1.5
("Seven of the cowries are filled with pellets; the eighth is a clasp")


Pair of Broad Bracelets of Sithathoryunet
Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret II - Amenemhat III (ca. 1887-1813 BCE)
Egypt, Fayum Entrance Area, el-Lahun (Illahun, Kahun; Ptolemais Hormos), Tomb of Sithathoryunet (BSA Tomb 8), Chamber E, box 1,
Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaelogy excavations, 1914
Gold, carnelian, turquoise, green (now white) paste, circum. 12.5 cm (4 15/16 in); l. of clasps 8 cm (3 1/8 in); l. of bars 8.1 cm (3 3/16 in)
Purchase, Rogers Fund and Henry Walters Gift, 1916,
MMA 16.1.8 and MMA 16.1.9
"The bar with the name of Amenemhat III slides into two grooved end pieces."

This pectoral and anklet also belonged to Sithathoryunet:


Pectoral, reign Senwosret II


Gold and amethyst anklet