Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Hand On Tut's Crown








Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some photos that seem to refute the conventional wisdom that Metropolitan artifact 50.6











shows the hand of the god, Amun, resting upon the khepresh-crown of a diminuative child king, Tutankhamun, formerly Tutankhaten. I maintain the hand is that of a female, having the pointed thumb of a woman and her slender fingers. I submit my own thumb for comparison.


















2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are perfectly right, Marianne. When you follow the imaginary arm the elbow would have had to be flected, would the artist wish to avoid the curious situation, that Tut was sitting higher than the person or god, whose hand we can see in the image.
This would have been possible only if Tut would sit on the lap of the adult - than probably a human person, not a god. Most often are the hands of Aten displayed as emanating from the sun, from a position high on over the adorant.

Anonymous said...

Besides, they are wrong twice at the Met. Would this represent an investiture gesture - this couldn´t be the god Amun, since at the very beginning of king Tut´s reign the Aton cult would have still prevailed.