Amarna at Philadelphia

Fig. 1 - cloth hanging with a face of Akhenaten and one of his stelae

Fig. 2 - statuette of an Amarna Princess

     The Penn Museum also has a small display of Amarna Period objects from Egypt. They are now displayed downstairs, next to Merneptah's temple (they were upstairs last time I was at the museum) near a cloth hanging with a large image of a statue of Akhenaten (Fig. 1). A rather odd stela of Akhenaten can be seen in the lower left corner of Figure 1. It is odd in that portions of the royal figures have been carved very deeply so that something could be used to fill the figures and give the object a very unique look. However, since the filling material has long since disappeared, the stela today looks strange indeed.

Fig. 3 - statuette of Tutankhamen as the god Amun

Fig. 4 - Tutankhamen statuette, showing the broad collar and divine beard

     Figure 2 is a statuette of one of Akhenaten's daughters. We can be sure it is one of his daughters (rather than Nefertiti) because the bottom of the sidekick of youth (worn by children until they came of age) is visible on the princess' right shoulder (on the left side of the picture).

     Last, but not least, is a statuette of the god Amun that probably also represents Tutnkhamen. He is shown wearing a divine beard, a broad collar and a kilt that has the Knot of Isis on it (just below the Kings navel).


All photos on this website are copyright (c) 2016 by John Freed unless otherwise noted