Head of Queen Tiye

This little head, filled with astounding detail, depicts Queen Tiye, one of Ancient Egypt’s most powerful queens. Tiye was a formidable character, and held positions of power that not many other Great Royal Wife’s before or after her reign managed to grasp. Her husband, King Amenhotep III, erected several shrines to a temple dedicated to her in Sedeinga, Nubia, where she was worshipped as a form of the goddess Hathor-Tefnut. He also had an artificial lake made for her in Year 12. Remarkably, Tiye is equal in height to her spouse in the colossal seated statue presently housed centre stage in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

The queen’s facial features, including almond-shaped eyes, arching brows, and a slender nose, follow the stylistic canons of Amenhotep III’s reign. Her downturned mouth with plump lips is a typical element in the queen’s portrait, making her appearance distinct and identifiable.

The head was discovered at the temple of Hathor, the protector goddess of the turquoise mountain, in Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai. Queen Tiye was the wife of Amenhotep III and the mother of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten).

“The haughty dignity of the face is blended with a fascinating directness and personal appeal. The delicacy of the surfaces round the eye and over the cheek shows the greatest care in handling. The curiously drawn-down lips, with their fullness and yet delicacy, their disdain without malice, are evidently modelled in all truth from life.

Turning to the new portrait, we gather some details about the queen. The ear is represented as being pierced, as is also the case with her son Akhenaten. The crown which she wore was probably of openwork, in gold. The two winged uraei wave their length in loops around the head, as they meet in the back while in front they are supporters of the cartouche with the name….this piece alone was worth all the rest of our gains of the year. It is now in the Cairo Museum”.

– W.M.Finders Petrie, Researches in the Sinai, New York, 1906.

Read more: Mummy of Queen Tiye

Reconstruction of the head made for Egypt-Museum:

Summary:

Steatite head of Tiye
New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III, c. 1391-1353 B.C.
From Serabit el-Khadim, Sinai.
Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 38257