AUDE SEMAT: We’re looking at an architectural element, a large architectural plaque from a temple…

NARRATOR: Associate curator Aude Semat…

SEMAT: This would have been placed above a doorway. It shows three animal figures: a ram in the center, surrounded by a lion on each side. They are differentiated by their headdresses or crown elements.

NARRATOR: This piece comes from a Kushite temple in Sudan. The Kushites and Egyptians had a long and complicated relationship, and this artifact contains both Egyptian and Kushite elements.

Notice the head ornament of the ram in the center. Its crown is topped with two falcon feathers—the same motif we saw on the head of the Egyptian god Amun-Re earlier in this exhibition.

SEMAT: You had two forms of Amun-Re worshipped in Kush. You had the Egyptian Amun depicted as a man with a flat-topped crown and the two feathers. But the Kushite or the Nubian form of Amun was depicted as a ram or as a ram-headed god.

NARRATOR: Here, the two forms of Amun are combined. Amun appears as a ram, reflecting the Kushite tradition, but wearing an Egyptian-style head ornament.

The lion figures on either side of Amun depict the Kushite god Apedemak, but they also sport Egyptian-style head ornaments. Known as “hemhem” crowns, they feature three vertical bundles of plants, set above a pair of ram horns, framed by two ostrich feathers and two rearing cobras.

This blending of different cultural and artistic traditions was not uncommon in the ancient world. It enriches the artistic expression—but presents yet another complication in our attempts to decipher the iconography.