Cowroid Seal Amulet Inscribed for the God's Wife Hatshepsut
New Kingdom
The inscription on the base of this cowroid seal-amulet reads: God's Wife, Hatshepsut. In the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Dynasties, the title God's Wife was held by the principal queen or the queen mother. Hatshepsut inherited the title while she served as principal queen of her half-brother, Thutmose II. Later, shortly after she took on the titles of king, Hatshepsut passed the title on to her daughter, Neferure (see scarab 27.3.325).
Most of the amulets found in the foundation deposits of Hatshepsut's funerary temple were scarabs, but a handful were carved in the shape of a cowrie shell. Like this one, the backs of most of these cowroids have been incised with a decorative pattern that suggests the setting of a swivel ring bezel (see 36.3.46). Others (27.3.180) have also been inscribed with the image of a bolti fish (a tilapia), and two have been carved with the image of a falcon, with its wings outstretched and wearing an atef-crown (27.3.164, 27.3.396).
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