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Floral collar from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

New Kingdom
ca. 1336–1327 B.C.
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 122
This remarkably well preserved floral collar illustrates how the broad collars so frequently depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings were made. Alternating rows of flower petals and blossoms, leaves, berries, and blue faience beads were sewn to a papyrus backing, and linen ties secured the collar around the wearer's neck. Some of the flora used in the Tutankhamun collars have been identified as olive leaves, cornflowers, nightshade berries, and poppies. Several collars in the cache were bound around the edge with red cloth, and the resulting combination of red, blue, black, and green must have been very colorful and similar to the polychrome decoration on some of the pottery jars in the same deposit.

The collars were probably worn during a ceremony that took place when Tutankhamun was buried in the Valley of the Kings. After the ceremony, they were stuffed into a group of large pottery jars that were buried in a pit about fifty yards from the king's tomb. The jars also contained linen cloth, bags of natron (used in mummification), broken dishes (from the feast), and mud sealings with the name of the king. When the jars were discovered, almost twenty years before Tutankhamun's tomb was found, they were an important clue that the tomb was somewhere in the royal cemetery.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Floral collar from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache
  • Period: New Kingdom
  • Dynasty: Dynasty 18
  • Reign: reign of Tutankhamun
  • Date: ca. 1336–1327 B.C.
  • Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Embalming cache of Tutankhamun (KV 54), Davis/Ayrton excavations, 1907
  • Medium: Papyrus, olive leaves, persea leaves, nightshade berries, celery (?), faience, linen dyed red
  • Dimensions: Diam. 47 cm (18 1/2 in.); Diam. of disk beads 0.5 cm (3/16 in.)
    Box mount: W. 57 cm (22 7/16 in.); D. 57 cm (22 7/16 in.); H. 7 cm (2 3/4 in.)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Theodore M. Davis, 1909
  • Object Number: 09.184.216
  • Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Floral Collar from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache, Papyrus, olive leaves, persea leaves, cornflowers, blue lotus petals, Picris flowers, nightshade berries, faience, linen
Floral Collar from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache
ca. 1336–1327 B.C.
Heqanakht Letter I, Papyrus, ink
Heqanakht Letter I
ca. 1961–1917 B.C.
Book of the Dead for the Chantress of Amun Nauny, Papyrus, paint
Book of the Dead for the Chantress of Amun Nauny
ca. 1050 B.C.
Folded Piece of Linen with Hieratic Inscription, Linen
Folded Piece of Linen with Hieratic Inscription
ca. 1961–1917 B.C.
Cuff Bracelets Decorated with Cats, Gold, carnelian, lapis-lazuli, turquoise glass
Cuff Bracelets Decorated with Cats
ca. 1479–1425 B.C.

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