Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti as Shu and Tefnut

New Kingdom, Amarna Period

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 121

This ring was found at Amarna. The hieroglyphs may be read as an ideogram. The two seated figures are probably Akhenaten (left) and Nefertiti (right) as the deities Shu (air as indicated by the feather he holds) and Tefnut (moisture). They were father and mother of the earth and sky, which are symbolically represented by the earth hieroglyph (below) and by the sun disk flanked by two sacred cobras (above).

Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti as Shu and Tefnut, Gold

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Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti as Shu and Tefnut, Gold
Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti as Shu and Tefnut, Gold
Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti as Shu and Tefnut, Gold
Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti as Shu and Tefnut, Gold

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