Tut Exhibit - King Tutankhamun Exhibit, Collection: Jewelry - Composite Udjat Eye Pectoral representing King Tutankhamun

The Tutankhamun Exhibit

Jewelry and Ornamentation

Composite Udjat Eye Pectoral

Composite Udjat Eye Pectoral

In this pectoral, which was found in a layer of wrapping, the eye is flanked by the cobra-goddess, Wadjet, wearing the crown of Lower Egypt, and the vulture of Nekhbet wearing the atef crown, as the representative goddess of Upper Egypt. The crown does not accord with the symbolism, because it combines heraldic elements that signify rulership of both Upper and Lower Egypt, but the vulture was depicted wearing it so often that its unsuitability in the present context would certainly not strike the eye. The whole ensemble is made of gold and inlaid for the most part with polychrome glass interspersed with some carnelian and lapis lazuli.

A pale green stone used for the space between the eye and the eyebrow, as well as the white of the eye, has not been identified, but seemed to Carter to be a kind of quartz. The gold mount at the base is inlaid with carnelian and polychrome glass imitating turquoise and lapis lazuli.A triple string necklace of red and blue faience and gold beads connects the pectoral with a gold inlaid counterpoise, which hung below the nape of the neck. Like the pectoral, the counterpoise consists of three symbols mounted on a gold bar. Two of the symbols are djed pillars, and the third, placed between them, is the so-called girdle of Isis. What the symbol represents is uncertain; perhaps it consists of the same elements as the ankh sign, but differently arranged. As a rule it is made of red jasper (or glass) and that is the material presupposed in the spell for the girdle in the Book of the Dead (Chapter 156), which concludes with the words "To be uttered over a girdle of red jasper...which has been put on the neck of the deceased on the day of his funeral. He for whom this is done shall have the magic power of Isis as a protection for his body, and Horus, the son of Isis, shall rejoice over him when he sees him."