Diadem of Princess Khenmet
A gold crown of Princess Khenmet, possibly daughter of King Amenemhat II.
She is mainly known from her unrobbed tomb containing a set of outstanding personal adornments.
This masterpiece was found in the tomb of Khnemet and her sister “Ita” in Dahshur. The crown is made of a network of interlaced gold wires that entangle nearly 200 small flowers, each with a carnelian eye and five turquoise-inlaid petals. The wires are tied to three pins on each side of five ‘crosses’, which are actually five clusters of lotus blossoms, and terminate at a pair of rings on the back of a sixth ‘cross’.
Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, ca. 1991-1803 BC. From Princess Khenmet’s burial next to the pyramid of Amenemhat II at Dahshur. Now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
