Floral Collar from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

New Kingdom

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 122

This floral collar, from the funerary cache of Tutankhamun, was probably worn for ceremonies at the king's funeral. 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, and poppies. Several collars in the cache were bound around the edge with red cloth (09.184.215), 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 terracotta vessels in same deposit (09.184.83).

After the king's funeral, the floral collars, broken dishes, and other materials used during the ceremonies were placed in the large pottery storage jars that were found in the cache thirty-three hundred years later.

Floral Collar from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache, Papyrus, olive leaves, persea leaves, cornflowers, blue lotus petals, Picris flowers, nightshade berries, faience, linen

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

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, Papyrus, olive leaves, persea leaves, cornflowers, blue lotus petals, Picris flowers, nightshade berries, faience, linen
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, Papyrus, olive leaves, persea leaves, cornflowers, blue lotus petals, Picris flowers, nightshade berries, faience, linen

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.