Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · jewelry

Large wig rings of Sithathoryunet

Source of record: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Wig rings, Sithathoryunet. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret II–Amenemhat III, ca. 1887–1813 B.C. Gold. Diam. 0.9 cm (3/8 in). From: Tomb of Sithathoryunet (BSA Tomb 8), Lahun, Fayum Entrance Area, Egypt. Excavation: BSAE excavations 1914. Credit: Purchase, Rogers Fund and Henry Walters Gift, 1916.

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

The image shows a pair of dark, wig-like hair sections arranged like oversized wig rings, each strung with small gold-colored rectangular elements.

A mannequin head is not shown; instead, two rounded masses of dark brown hair are presented side-by-side, forming a symmetrical wig component. The hair is decorated with evenly spaced, small gold-colored strips/rectangles woven into the braids or hair strands, creating a grid-like pattern across both sides. A central dark opening/void suggests the wig component would fit around a supporting form, but no fastening mechanism is visible. No hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is present. No cartouches or royal names are visible. The overall appearance matches a gold-decorated wig-hair element rather than a sculpture or inscribed object.

decorative Middle Kingdom (as per catalogue) good
Materials gold-colored metal strips/rectanglesdark brown/black hair (organic fiber)

Connections

Found at Lahun

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116389504 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 16.1.25 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 545518 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.