Five fragments of Queen Hatshepsut’s expedition to the land of Punt.

Artefact Details

Gallery number: 12 – Ground Floor

Period: New Kingdom

Dynasty: 18th Dynasty (ca. 1550–1295 BC)

Place of discovery: Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut Deir el-Bahri Thebes, MMA (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) in 1928

Size: H 62.00 cm W 33.00 cm D/L 108.00 cm

Material: Painted Limestone

These fragments are part of a large relief wall commissioned by  queen Hatshepsut to commemorate an important trade expedition sent by the queen to Punt, a country situated somewhere on the Red Sea coast south of  Egypt, probably in the region of present-day Somalia/Eritrea. This expedition sent in order to obtain exotic goods for her  treasury and her pleasure – exotic animals, gold, incense materials, ebony and even trees for the temple garden. One of the relief depicts king Parehu and queen Ati. The king is  very slender and wears a kilt with a long sash, two under-tassels and a dagger tucked into the waistband. His long, slender  beard distinguishes him as a foreigner. The queen is excessively overweight with extreme curvature of the spine, rolls of fat on arms, body and legs. She wears a sleeveless dress, belted at the waist, a necklace with large disk beads, bracelets and anklets. On the right edge is a partial depiction of two rows of gold rings in baskets and a third of undetermined identification.