Plaque with winged Re-Harakhty

Plaque with winged Re-Harakhty

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The top of this rectangular plaque is decorated with a pair of uraei linked by their tails, flanking an incomplete version of the throne name of Thutmose III, (Men)kheperre. Despite the name of the early 18th Dynasty ruler, this plaque was carved after his reign, as indicated by the pearl strings running along the top and bottom. This decorative feature was common on plaques made during Dynasty 19–21. The later date is also confirmed by the decoration on the underside of the amulet, which shows a one-winged deity with falcon head standing behind an ostrich feather and a small uraeus. This god can be identified as the sun god Re or Re-Harakhty, who predominantly appears in similar compositions on scarabs and oval stamp seals from this period.


Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.