The Significance of the Throne in Ancient Egypt
For the Ancient Egyptians, the Throne means in Hieroglyphs (ist) and it was
the emblem of Goddess "Isis"; therefore, the one who was sitting on
the throne was represented the son of "Isis" who is God
"Horus", so the king was sacred because he is "Horus" who
is qualified to sit on the lap of Goddess "Isis".
Actually "Howard Carter" discovered five other thrones and chairs
belong to King "Tutankhamun". These thrones and chairs were found
scattered in the "Annex" and the "Antechamber" of the tomb.
Place of discovery
- This golden throne was discovered covered with folds of black linen shrouds
in the Antechamber of the tomb number (KV62) of King Tutankhamun beneath the
Hippopotamus funerary bed.
Why was this fine piece given little honour in its final placing?
Because this golden throne has nothing to do with the court of Thebes or even Memphis, but it is
associated with El Amarna. So It was manufactured at the beginning of the reign
of Tutankhamun.
The Amarna style of art is evident in this piece in the following points
(1) The Solar Disc which dominated the main scene of the backrest of the
throne is the representation of God "itn" with the rays of the sun
emerge from it to indicate to the power of the god "itn" (Who was the
power behind the sun not the sun disc itself) and these rays end with human
hands to represent the anthropomorphic association between the God
"itn" and his sole priest on earth (The King) to provide the people
through the body of the royal family with life and prosperity which was
represented near the nostrils of the royal family.
(2) The names of the king and his royal wife are written in the earlier
form or (itn) form on all of the sides of the throne and also it's back except
for two places (near the head of Tutankhamon at the backrest and on the inside
of the left arm rest of the throne) which were probably added later after the
religious revolution.
(3) The intimate scene which is full of affection between the royal couple.
(4) The naturalistic scene of birds flying over some marches of papyrus
plants without any representation of human beings.
(5) The physical features of both the king and the queen such as the elongated
face, slim waist, heavy hips, slim legs, and the sandals.
Description of Tutankhamun Golden Throne
- This golden throne is made out of wood covered with sheets not leafs of gold and silver and inlaid in some parts with semiprecious stones such as (Turquoise with its light blue color "mfqAt", faience with its dark blue color "xsbt", and carnelian with its orange color) and some parts inlaid with painted glass.
As we know that the silver sheets were
very expensive even more expensive or precious than gold because the silver was
very rare in ancient Egypt, but the artist used its sheets to cover the
costumes of the royal couple and also to differentiate between the two crowns
over the serpents on both edges of the thrones because the artist imitate the
red color of the crown of Lower Egypt by gold and the white color of the crown
of Upper Egypt by silver.
- The main scene on the backrest of the golden throne is representing the King
"Tutankhamun" seated on a throne similar to this throne cushioned to
be more comfortable for the king and that also was a tradition from "El
Amarna" period of art. He is sitting in front of his wife
"Ankhesenamen" who is represented while bowing and lovely touching
his shoulder and massaging the body of the king by special kinds of perfumed
ointments and unguents.
-As we see that this scene is full of signs of love and affection between the
royal couple such as:-
(1) The massaging scene and the touch of the body of the king from the queen.
(2) Around the main scene there are flowers and fruits, which are considered
codes or symbols of love and affection in ancient Egyptian art.
-The king "Tutankhamun" is represented wearing a composite crown, which
is similar to the "Atef" crown with more additions of serpents
wearing solar discs and two feathers. He is wearing a hair wig which ended from
the back with two streamers which is also one of the traditions of the
"Amarna" style of art. He is wearing a wide "wsx" collar
covering most of his shoulder and his chest.
He is also wearing the "Sndyt"
royal kilt which is very long and pleated with central tab which was the
fashion of this time. He is putting his feet upon a footstool which is similar
to this footstool in front of us inside this showcase. In front of the king,
there is his wife Queen "Ankhesenamen" wearing also a composite crown
with two feathers and solar disc and two horns. She is wearing a wig with two
streamers, wide collar, and also she is wearing her dress which is made out of
silver.
- Behind the queen, there is a high table with a collar on it, which is a very
unusual feature.
-On the two edges of the throne we can see that king "Tutankhamun"
wanted to stress on his control of both Upper and Lower Egypt by 4 features:-
(1) There are two serpents, one of them is wearing the white
"silver" crown of Upper Egypt (HDt)" as a pun because both
silver and white has the same translation in Hieroglyphs and that was a
preferable tradition of the ancient Egyptians" and the other serpent is
wearing the red "gold" crown of Lower Egypt (dSrt).
(2) On the hand rests of the throne, there are two big serpents, their
eyes are inlaid with semiprecious stones and they rest upon the "nb"
sign, decorated by colored squares, wearing the double crown with gold and
silver (sxmty).
(3) The two big serpents on the hand rests of the throne have two wings
which is a representation of the unity of the Two Main Goddesses of Upper and
Lower Egypt (The cobra goddess of Lower Egypt "wADt" and the vulture
goddess of Upper Egypt "Nxbt").
(4) On the four edges of the throne
between the four legs, there are four broken representations of the "smA
tAwy" sign which consists of the lungs and the trachea of the king tight
with the papyrus plants "Sign of Lower Egypt" and lotus flowers
"Sign of Upper Egypt" to imitate that the breath of the king is the
support of the unification of the two lands.
-The two hand rests of the throne take the shape of two lions in which the
artist perfected his work in the anatomy of the two lions, in their paws which
is made out of lapis lazuli, in the difference between the front and the rear
legs of the lion, the lower part of the front leg of the lion is represented
with part of lapis lazuli, and also the facial features of the lion even the
mane of the lion, the ears of the lion, and the inlaid eyes of the lion with
semiprecious stones to imitate that the king is flanked by two real lions with
all features of ferocity, power, and wildness of the lions.
- The existence of these two lions has several indications such as:-
(1) May be these two lions indicate to the power and the might of the king and
that he is capable to rule Upper and Lower Egypt despite the fact that he was
ten or eleven years old when he was crowned upon this throne.
(2) Since lions were believed to live on the desert margins, they came to be
considered as the guardians of the eastern and western horizons, the places of
the sunrise and sunset. In this connection they sometimes replaced the eastern
and western mountains, symbolic o
The back of the throne:
-On the back of the throne, there is the naturalistic scene of ducks
flying over the marches of the Nile. Also
there is a freeze of cobras made out of semiprecious stones and decorated with
sun discs over their heads. There are three lines of hieroglyphic inscriptions
representing the "itn earlier form" of the names of the king when his
name was "tut anx itn" and his wife was "anx s n pA itn".
The Footstool:
- Concerning the footstool of the throne, it is made out of heavy wood covered
with gold leafs and decorated on its top with 6 of the nine traditional enemies
which may be an exaggeration of the three enemies from the eastern, the
western, and the southern borders of Egypt (The Asiatics, The Libyans, and The
Nubians) to indicate to the plural of plurality or the perfection of power over
the enemies and that was accomplished by 3x3=9 "psDt psDwt" or by
3x2=6 as the case of this footstool of the golden throne of king "Tutankhamun".
Other opinion said that the real number of the enemies of Egypt in the reign of king "Tutankhamun" was six enemies, but this opinion isn't strong because on the other 5 footstools we found the nine traditional enemies which are:-
The Nubians,
The Libyans,
The Asiatics,
The Sea people,
The Ashurians,
The Hittites,
The people of Kush,
The Babylonians, and,
the Palestinians.
On the front and back of the footstool, we can see the "rxyt" birds
with the human hands to represent the commoners of Egypt sitting on the "nb"
sign meaning all , and beside them; we find the "dwA" sign which is
"to adore". So this is translated as: the king is being adored by all
commoners.
On the middle of this scene on the footstool, we can read a vertical line of
hieroglyphs which says " Nbw tAw xAst nbt wrw n rTnw dmi mi wax r Tbwy.k
mi ra Dt : All the great ones of the foreign lands are being united like one
under your sandals like Re forever ”. The king wanted to declare that despite
the fact that he was a boy, but he was capable of subjugating all of the
enemies of Egypt and to be
adored by the people of Egypt
also.
- There are two modifications in this throne which are: -
(1) the modification of two of the "itn form" of the king to "twt anx imn HqA iwn rsyt" on two parts of the throne. The first part is above the head of the king in the main scene on the backrest of the throne and the second part is inside the left hand rest of the throne.
(2) The modification of the hair wigs and the crowns of both the king and the
queen. The evidences of that modification are the streamers which aren’t fixed
to the hair wigs and the rays of the sun which are cut above the crowns of the
king and the queen.
- If we concentrate on the main scene of this throne, we found that both the king and the queen are wearing one sandal, so there are weak opinions said that the king and his wife are sharing the same pair of sandals as an evidence of the marriage and the sharing of authority between the king and the queen. What really happened is that the parts of the other sandals of the king and the queen were broken off while this throne was transported from the tomb to the Egyptian Museum because we can see traces of the missing sandal on the right leg of the king.
The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the back of this golden throne: -
On the right side:
ntr nfr nb tAwy : The good god, lord of the two lands.
niswt bity : King of Upper and Lower Egypt .
nb xprw ra : Lord of the existences (forms) of Re
sA ra : The son of Re
twt anh itn : The living image of the god ίtn.
mi ra Dt: Like Rc forever
In the middle:
ntr nfr nb tAwy : The good god, lord of the two lands.
niswt bity : King of Upper and Lower Egypt .
nb xprw ra : Lord of the existences (forms) of rc
Hmt niswt wrt: The great royal wife.
anx s n pA itn: she who lives for the ίtn
anh.ti Dt: Living forever
- On the left side on the back of the throne, there is the same line of hieroglyphic inscriptions that was mentioned on the right side.