The Tutankhamun Exhibit

Other Items

Ivory Fan Trimmed with Ostrich Feathers

In a land as hot and frequently airless as Egypt the fan was a necessary piece of equipment, intended to provide shade as well as a cooling breeze. Tutankhamun had been buried eight - a single hand-held example shown here, and seven fans mounted on longer or shorter stocks for operation by a courier.

The most remarkable of Tutankhamun's fans is this small (18 cm long) but exquisite rotating hand-fan of ivory found in a white painted wooden box in the Treasury. Its feathers, predominantly white with a shorter row of brown at the base, were preserved intact.