Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II

Period:: Middle Kingdom

Dynasty:: Dynasty 12

Reign:: reign of Senwosret II

Date:: ca. 1887–1878 B.C.

Geography:: From Egypt, Fayum Entrance Area, Lahun, Tomb of Sithathoryunet (BSA Tomb 8), BSAE excavations 1914

Medium:: Gold, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, garnet (pectoral)
Gold, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, green feldspar (necklace)

Dimensions:: L. of necklace (b): 82 cm (32 5/16 in.); H. of pectoral (a): 4.5 cm (1 3/4 in.); W. 8.2 cm (3 1/4 in.)

Credit Line:: Purchase, Rogers Fund and Henry Walters Gift, 1916

Accession Number:: 16.1.3a, b

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 111

This pectoral is composed around the throne name of King Senwosret II. It was found among the jewelry of Princess Sithathoryunet in a special niche of her underground tomb beside the pyramid of Senwosret II at Lahun. Hieroglyphic signs make up the design, and the whole may be read: "The god of the rising sun grants life and dominion over all that the sun encircles for one million one hundred thousand years [i.e., eternity] to King Khakheperre [Senwosret II]."
This cloisonné pectoral is inlaid with 372 carefully cut pieces of semiprecious stones. The heraldic design is replete with symbolism. Zigzag lines on the base bar represent the primordial waters out of which the primeval hill emerged. Each of the falcons, symbols of the sun god, clasps a circular hieroglyph meaning "encircled," thus declaring the solar deity's supreme power over the universe. The same hieroglyph, elongated to form a cartouche, encircles the throne name of Senwosret II, Khakheperre. Flanking the king's name are two ankh hieroglyphs (meaning "life") suspended from cobras whose tails are wound around the sun disk on the falcons' heads. These snakes represent Nekhbet and Udjo, the traditional protector goddesses of the king. Supporting the royal cartouche is the kneeling god Heh clutching two palm ribs symbolizing "millions of years." Thus the king's life and existence in time are described as part of a universe created and sustained by the supreme sun god.
Jewelry worn by royal women during the Middle Kingdom was not simply for adornment or an indication of status but was also symbolic of concepts and myths surrounding Egyptian royalty. Jewelry imbued a royal woman with superhuman powers and thus enabled her to support the king in his role as guarantor of divine order on earth. It was essentially the king who benefited from the magical powers inherent in the jewelry worn by the female members of his family, which explains why his name, rather than that of the princess, appears in the designs.
Since the tomb of the princess was beside the pyramid of Senwosret, scholars speculate that she was his daughter. Other items in the tomb bear the name of Amenemhat III, suggesting that the princess lived during the reigns of three of the most powerful rulers of Dynasty 12: Senwosret II, Senwosret III, and Amenemhat III.

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#1123. Pectoral of Sithathoryunet

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Excavated by Petrie at Lahun under the sponsorship of the British School of Archeology in Egypt, 1914. Received by Petrie in the division of finds. Purchased by the Museum from Petrie, 1916.

Rostovtzeff, Mikhail I. 1926. A History of Ancient World, 1. Oxford, pl. 18.

Breasted, James H. Jr. 1936. Geschichte Ägyptens. Zürich, pl. 328.

Pijoán, José 1950. Summa Artis: Historia general del arte, Vol. III. 1950. Madrid, 221, fig. 296.

Hayes, William C. 1953. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 233, fig. 150.

Scott, Nora E. 1964. "Egyptian Jewelry." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 22, no. 7 (March), p. 228, fig. 10; p. 231.

Arnold, Dieter, Emma Brunner Traut, Henry G. Fischer, Matthias Seidel, Wilfried Seipel, C. Vandersleyen, and Erika Feucht 1975. Das alte Ägypten, Propyläen Kunstgeschichte, 15. Berlin, p. 389, no. 394a.

Hibbard, Howard 1980. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Harper & Row, 32, fig. 47.

Dorman, Peter F., Prudence Harper, and Holly Pittman 1987. Egypt and the Ancient Near East in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 38, 39.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, p. 46.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York and New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, p. 46.

Patch, Diana Craig 2015. "Pectoral of Princess Sithathoryunet." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 114–15, no. 54A, B.

Oppenheim, Adela 2015. "Introduction: What Was the Middle Kingdom?." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 5, 7.

Stünkel, Isabel 2015. "Royal Women: Ladies of the Two Lands." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 93.

Timelines
Egypt, 2000-1000 B.C.

Department

Egyptian Art (27,197)

Object Type / Material