Spacer-bead with images of divinities and a king
This bead spacer is decorated with religious and royal imagery. On one side, it shows the king before solar deities —the falcon headed god Reharakhty and the anthropomorphic god Atum. The latter holds the branch—the hieroglyph for year—alongside the king, while the former offers him the khepesh sword. On the other side, two winged deities protect the image of a lion-headed god.
Perforations on the piece’s ends would allow its stringing alongside other beads to prevent sagging and angling. However, spacer-beads like this one were not merely decorative, often bearing religious and royal imagery. In the Third Intermediate Period, the themes on such spacer-beads often borrow from the repertoire found in palaces and temples, where the image of the god presenting the king with the khepesh sword is most common.
Perforations on the piece’s ends would allow its stringing alongside other beads to prevent sagging and angling. However, spacer-beads like this one were not merely decorative, often bearing religious and royal imagery. In the Third Intermediate Period, the themes on such spacer-beads often borrow from the repertoire found in palaces and temples, where the image of the god presenting the king with the khepesh sword is most common.
Artwork Details
- Title: Spacer-bead with images of divinities and a king
- Period: Third Intermediate Period
- Date: ca. 1070–715 B.C.
- Geography: From Egypt
- Medium: Faience
- Dimensions: L. 5.1 × H. 3.4 × Th. 1 cm (2 × 1 5/16 × 3/8 in.)
- Credit Line: Bequest of Nanette B. Kelekian, 2020
- Object Number: 2021.41.101
- Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art
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27 B.C.–A.D. 14
4th century B.C.
360–343 BCE
ca. 1070–332 BCE
ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
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