Tut Exhibit - King Tutankhamun Exhibit, Collection: Furniture and Boxes - Chair with Carved Figure of the God Heh

The Tutankhamun Exhibit

Furniture and Boxes

Chair with Carved Figure of the God Heh

Chair with Carved Figure of the God Heh


Made perhaps of the timber commonly called "cedar of Lebanon" (believed to be Cilician fir), this very elegant chair closely resembles the golden throne in the design of it's lower part. The damage done to it by the ancient robbers is also very similar: the whole of the heraldic device commemorating the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one crown, which occupied the space between the seat and the stretchers, has been ripped off, with the exception of the hieroglyphic sign for unification in the middle of each side. On the back panel is a superbly carved figure of the god of eternity, Heh, with a "life" sign slung over his right arm and holding in each hand a notched palm rib, attached at the base to the sign for "100,000" mounted on a coil of rope. At the top of each palm rib is a solar disk and cobra from whose hood is suspended a banner inscribed with the king's Horus name. The inscriptions emphasize the divine origin of the king.