Ostrich Hunt Fan of Tutankhamun
Found resting between the two innermost shrines within the burial chamber of Tutankhamun, this magnificent fan once bloomed with thirty ostrich feathers, alternately white and brown, fluttering like desert light and shade. Though the feathers have long since vanished, their tiny stumps still cling to the perforations along the outer rim: a ghostly reminder of their former splendour.
Fashioned from wood and lavishly overlaid with sheet gold, the handle stretches a stately 95 cm. Along its gleaming surface runs a particularly charming inscription: Tutankhamun himself boasted of hunting ostriches in the desert near Heliopolis, and of providing their feathers for this very fan, an intimate glimpse of the king as sportsman as well as sovereign.
Ostrich feathers were not mere ornament. A single plume was the emblem of Ma’at, the concept of Truth, Justice, and the Harmony that bound the cosmos. Thus, a fan made of such feathers carried with it not only cool air, but a whisper of divine order. In Egyptian art, ostrich-feather fans frequently appear beside kings, queens, nobles, and high-ranking attendants, signalling both luxury and cosmic favour.
Although ostriches once ranged into the eastern deserts of Egypt, many were also brought northwards from Nubia and deeper Africa, their feathers prized for fans, their eggs repurposed as elegant containers for unguents and perfumes.
Personified Ankh Attendant
This intriguing figure of an ankh sign rendered with human limbs, is an example of a personified hieroglyph, a device frequently employed in the decorative programme of Tutankhamun’s chariots, shrines, and ceremonial furniture.
The ankh (ꜥnḫ), the hieroglyph for life, is here animated to act as a symbolic attendant to the king. Instead of remaining a static sign, it is given arms, legs, and agency, allowing it to participate actively within the scene.
In this context, the walking ankh bears a ceremonial fan or standard, positioned behind the king and beside the chariot wheel. This composition transforms the abstract concept of life into a divine helper that accompanies and supports the pharaoh. Such personifications often appear alongside royal vehicles or ritual scenes, reinforcing the notion that the king is not merely a mortal ruler but the central figure within Egypt’s cosmic order, perpetually sustained by the forces of life, protection, and eternity.
Egyptian artists of the late 18th Dynasty employed these animated signs deliberately. Their presence emphasises that symbol and deity were inseparable, and that hieroglyphs (embodying sacred powers) could be made to “serve” the king visually. Thus, the personified ankh walking beside Tutankhamun’s chariot is not a playful flourish but a formal assertion of ideology:
Life itself accompanies the pharaoh wherever he goes.
Summary:
Tutankhamun on an Ostrich Hunt (as depicted upon a fan)
New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, reign of Tutankhamun, c. 1332-1323 B.C.
From the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), Valley of the Kings, West Thebes.
Now in the #GrandEgyptianMuseum. JE 62001
