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Relief Depicting the Purification of Queen Kiya (?)

New Kingdom, Amarna Period
ca. 1347–1330 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 121
This fragment is from a scene showing a royal woman undergoing a ritual of purification. The zigzag lines represent water being poured over her head from a jar held by the small hand at the upper left of the relief. The woman originally wore a Nubian wig similar to the one carved on a canopic jar lid from this period (see 30.8.54). Later the wig was filled in with gypsum plaster, which was modeled and recarved into the elaborately dressed sidelock of hair worn by Akhenaten's daughters, but some of the plaster has fallen out. Judging by the facial features and the original wig, the figure probably was intended to represent Queen Kiya, a beloved secondary wife of Akhenaten. This queen seems to have died several years before the end of the king's reign, and her images were invariably altered to represent one of his older daughters, as on this relief.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Relief Depicting the Purification of Queen Kiya (?)
  • Period: New Kingdom, Amarna Period
  • Dynasty: Dynasty 18
  • Reign: reign of Akhenaten
  • Date: ca. 1347–1330 BCE
  • Geography: From Egypt; Probably from Middle Egypt, Hermopolis (Ashmunein; Khemenu); Probably originally from Amarna (Akhetaten)
  • Medium: Limestone, paint
  • Dimensions: H. 22.5 × W. 45 × D. 3.3 cm (8 7/8 × 17 11/16 × 1 5/16 in.)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Norbert Schimmel, 1985
  • Object Number: 1985.328.8
  • Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

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