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crowns




The above picture show s the crowns most frequently seen on the monuments. The head-dress formed an important and significant part of the king's royal uniform, and many are the varieties of crown pictured upon tomb and temple walls.

The king can be depicted wearing a number of different head coverings, each corresponding to particular ceremonial situations. The earliest of these to be depicted is a form of tall conical headpiece ending in a bulb. 
This is the crown of Upper Egypt or White Crown Hedjet (No. 4), which is seen as early as the time of the Narmer palette (c.3ooo BC). It is sometimes referred to as the Nefer or White Nefer. The Narmer palette also shows the crown of Lower Egypt, or Red Crown Deshret (No. 6) which comprises a tall chair-shaped arrangement from which protrudes a coil. With unification, crowns were combined to become the Two Mighty Ones, the double crown Pschent (No. 7). This crown was a combination of the White Crown of Upper Egypt (No. 4) and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt (No. 6). From the 18th Dynasty onwards kings also wore the Blue Crown Khepresh (No. 3) , sometimes erroneously described as the War Crown.

The king might also wear the Nemes headcloth. This was a piece of striped cloth pulled tight across the forehead and tied into a kind of tail at the back while at each side of the face two strands or lappets hung down. The brow was decorated with the uraeus and the vulture. The famous golden mask of the boy king Tut Anch Amun is a perfect example of that type of crown. A plain version of this was the khat. which is shaped like a kind of tall, flanged helmet and made of cloth adorned with golden discs.

The Atef Crown is effectively a White Crown' with a plume on either side and a small disc at the top, which was worn in certain religious rituals.

"The keeper of the king's diadem" held a high position at court under the Old Empire; but the office was done away with during the New Empire. The gods are always depicted as wearing crowns, and many of them are most complicated, as Nos. 15 and 16, No. 18 is one which is frequently seen on kings as well as gods, it is known as the Atef. The queen's head-dress represented a vulture with his wings spread round her head in the act of protection.

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