Museum August Kestner (Hannover / Germany) owns a highly important Egyptian object made of blue, yellow and white glass: a fragment of a statuette representing the Egyptian goddess Taweret (Thoeris), inv. no. 2616, previously in the...
moreMuseum August Kestner (Hannover / Germany) owns a highly important Egyptian object made of blue, yellow and white glass: a fragment of a statuette representing the Egyptian goddess Taweret (Thoeris), inv. no. 2616, previously in the collection of August Kestner (1777-1853). Together with two monkey-figurines excavated in Greece (acropolis of Mycenae and lower citadel of Tiryns), all three fragments bear a cartouche with the name of Pharaoh Amenhotep II (Dynasty 18, 1425-1400 BC). This fact makes them the humankind's oldest dated sculptures from the material glass. Taweret is usually represented as a figure consisting of three animals: hippopotamus body standing upright on its rear legs, the paws are those of a lion, back and tail a crocodile. Allthough thousands of statuettes showing Taweret in the described feature have been preserved, the glass statuette in Hannover is absolutely unique, because it is the only known example which combines the three animals within the head: hippopotamus ears, lion nose and crocodile teeth. Samples of the glass were taken and analyzed (chapter by Rainer Werthmann, pp. 37-44). Further, other glass objects bearing royal names of early Dynasty 18, belonging to the earliest attestations for glass in Egypt, are presented and discussed in this contribution.