Statuette of Tutankhamun on a Funerary Bed

This statuette depicts king Tutankhamun upon his funerary bed. The king is shown mummified in the Osiride royal form, with his hands crossed over his chest.

Tutankhamun is lying on a splendidly decorated funerary bed decorated with two lion’s heads. The bed is engraved with funerary formula and prayer to accompany the king upon his spiritual journey, and acknowledgement that the piece had been made in dedication by Maya, Tutankhamun’s scribe and official, who commissioned this piece as a funerary tribute to the late king.

Tutankhamun lay deceased, with his Ba Bird and Horus flanking each side of him.

Tutankhamun is dressed in full royal regalia, with the nemes headdress and gilded gold uraeus – the Ancient Egyptian royal insignia.

Flanking each side of the king, two birds are seen. One is a falcon, a representation of the god Horus, the son of Osiris, and whom the kings of Egypt were associated with in life. On the other side is a human-headed bird, known to the Egyptians as the “Ba”. This is a representation of the king’s spirit, ready to fly free from the body. Across the king’s lower torso, he is wrapped with falcon wings.

Statuette of Tutankhamun on a Funerary Bed — Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 60720

This statuette was discovered carefully wrapped within a linen shroud, among several miniature agricultural instruments identical to those provided for the ushabti figures.

Tutankhamun’s tomb had 413 ushabtis ranging in size, intricacy, material, and quality: 365 craftsmen (one for each day of the year), 36 overseers (one for each Egyptian 10-day week), and 12 directors (one for each month of the year).