Spherical Jar Inscribed with Hatshepsut's Titles as Queen

New Kingdom

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 118

This small spherical ointment jar is inscribed:
"King's Daughter, King's Sister, God's Wife, King's Great Wife (principal queen), Hatshepsut, may she live and endure like Re forever."

The titles are those of a queen, but the last phrase is more commonly applied to kings, so the jar may date from Hatshepsut's time as regent for her nephew, Thutmose III.

The jar may originally have been intended to furnish Hatshepsut's queen's cliff tomb in western Thebes. After she became king, Hatshepsut seems to have donated goods inscribed with her queen's titles as provisions for the burials of individuals she deemed important (see linen and vessels from the tomb of Hatnefer and Ramose, 36.6.1–36.6.70). Two stone jars, this one and 26.8.8, seem to have been donated to the burial of three foreign wives of Thutmose III.

Spherical Jar Inscribed with Hatshepsut's Titles as Queen, Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)

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inscribed side

Spherical Jar Inscribed with Hatshepsut's Titles as Queen, Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)
Spherical Jar Inscribed with Hatshepsut's Titles as Queen, Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)
Spherical Jar Inscribed with Hatshepsut's Titles as Queen, Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)

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