Artifact · 18th Dynasty

Seated Statue of Hatshepsut

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hatshepsut wears the nemes headcloth and royal kilt of a king, but the delicate face and slender body keep a feminine character, reflecting an early stage of her reign.

The statue was smashed and thrown into a quarry after her death. The Metropolitan Museum’s excavations in the 1920s recovered the fragments, which were then reassembled.