Finger Ring of Throne Name of Tutankhamun, Nebkheperure

The ring bears the throne name of Tutankhamun (“Nebkheperure”), whose spectacular tomb in the Valley of the Kings was discovered in 1922. Tutankhamun was raised in Akhenaten’s court at Amarna, yet his reign saw the reversal of Akhenaten’s revolution, including the return of the court to Thebes.

The gold ring was found in an elaborate Canaanite tomb. It is unclear whether it arrived in Canaan during the reign of Tutankhamun (ca. 1332-1323 BC) or later.

The ‘Amarna revolution’ was not only a religious but also an artistic one. The art of this era is recognizable by its unmistakable sinuous shapes and the singular expressiveness of faces and gestures, which end up surviving, albeit in a less marked manner, in the following epoch.

The Amarna Period lasted less than twenty years: with the advent of the still-child Tutankhaten (‘living image of Aten‘), soon to be renamed Tutankhamun (‘living image of Amun’), traditional cults were restored. Akhetaten was abandoned and became a quarry for building material. The Amarna interlude, however, marked the transition to a new political, cultural and artistic phase.

New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, reign of Tutankhamun, ca. 1332-1323 BC. Excavated in Tell el-Ajjul, Gaza. Now in the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem. 33.708