Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun in a Garden

Among the series of ornate boxes discovered in the burial of Tutankhamun, this example is especially striking despite the damage it suffered in antiquity. The casket was found broken and displaced, its lid lying in one corner of the chamber and its body heaved into another, its legs and panels crushed under the weight of other burial goods. Originally, it held sandals, cult robes, necklaces, a headrest, and a belt.

The side panels show lively hunting and fowling scenes, while the lid presents an intimate moment between the young royal couple. Tutankhamun, who ascended the throne as a boy of about nine and died aged around eighteen or nineteen, is depicted with his Great Royal Wife, Ankhesenamun, his half-sister and close companion, then only a teenager herself. In a pavilion adorned with flowers and vines, the queen offers him lotus blooms and mandrake fruit, which were Ancient Egyptian symbols of love, fertility, and rebirth, while maidens gather blossoms below.

This tender scene contrasts with the more martial imagery found elsewhere in the tomb, reminding us of the human bonds between the youthful king and his queen, whose short lives were entwined with the splendour and fragility of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty.

This ivory-veneered casket lid, bordered with faience and calcite inlay, shows not the martial themes so often favoured, but an intimate domestic tableau. Within a flower-hung pavilion, Tutankhamun leans on his staff while his young queen, Ankhesenamun, offers him lotus blooms and the fruit of the mandrake. Both wear floral collars and light courtly dress, embodying a scene of renewal and devotion.

Below, maidens gather blossoms and mandrakes for their royal patrons, while inscriptions above proclaim the king as “Nebkheprure, Tutankhamun, Lord of the Two Lands,” and his consort as “The Great Royal Wife, Ankhesenamun, may she live.”

From the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), Valley of the Kings, West Thebes. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 61477