Model faience wig for a statue

Said to be from Thebes, Egypt
18th-19th Dynasties, about 1350-1250 BC

This wig was probably one of a number of faience and glass elements placed on a (probably wooden) royal statue. It is made of a particularly glossy type of faience, one that was very common around the time of the Amarna Period (1390-1327 BC). However, the round wig is more commonly seen on royal statues of the Nineteenth Dynasty (about 1295-1186 BC).

Set into the wig is a representation of a headband, with attached streamers of gold inlaid with red and blue glass as substitutes for carnelian and turquoise. On the end of one streamer is a cobra. A hole in the top of the wig may indicate a place for a crown, while another hole in the brow is for the attachment of a uraeus. A layer of plaster on the inside probably indicates how the wig was attached to the statue.

F.D. Friedman (ed.), Gifts of the Nile: ancient Egy (London, Thames and Hudson, 1998)