RARE ELEMENTS OF ADORNMENT FROM THE TOMB OF THE WIVES OF THUTMOSE III

RARE ELEMENTS OF ADORNMENT FROM THE TOMB OF THE WIVES OF THUTMOSE III
Egypt, West Thebes, tomb 1 of Wadi Gabbanat el-Gouroud, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Thutmose III, Ca. 1479 - 1425 BC. A set of three elongated gold ornaments, each composed of a series of overlapping gold plaques with circular rosettes on the upper side arranged in continuous rows. Each rosette has around 10-12 gold petals radiating from a central raised boss and is separated by thin gold borders. The tomb of the three foreign wives of Thutmose III was discovered in August 1916 in Wadi Gabbanat el-Gouroud (the valley of the monkeys in West Thebes) after a violent storm which revealed a crevice in the cliff. It housed three secondary wives with names of Semitic origin: Menhet, Menoui and Merti. The inhabitants of Gournah entered it and discovered the untouched tomb from which they took some samples of jewels. Later, the Egyptologist Winlock was able to buy part of it. Today, the treasure of the three wives is divided between the Cairo Museum and the Metropolitan, which holds a similar wig cover; some pieces are in private collections. Today, we wonder why the three foreign princesses were buried at the same time, in the same tomb. Reviewed by Simone Musso, consultant curator for Egyptian antiquities at the Stibbert Museum, Florence, Italy, member of the Nuri Archaeological Expedition. Comparative bibliography: Aldred C., Jewels of the Pharaohs, Egyptian Jewellery of the Dynastic Period, London, 1971, pl. XXXI, fig. 53; Andrews C., Ancient Egyptian Jewellery, London, 1990, p. 110, fig. 90. Publication: Lilyquist Ch., The tomb of three foreign wives of Tuthmosis III, New York, 2003. Size: 140-215mm x 15-20mm; Weight: 55g Provenance: Prince collection, 1990s-2014; Ex. Binoche' Paris, 30 May 2012, lot 26. This item has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database and comes with a confirmation letter.