The Lotus chalice or Alabaster chalice, called the Wishing Cup by

Howard Carter Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptology, Egyptologist who Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, discovered Tomb of Tutankhamun, the intact tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty Pharaoh ...

, derives from the

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

of the

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

of the

18th Dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...

. The object received the find number 014 and was on display in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, with the inventory numbers JE 67465 and GEM 36. It has been moved to the as yet unopened

Grand Egyptian Museum The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM; ''al-Matḥaf al-Maṣriyy al-Kabīr''), also known as the Giza Museum, is an archaeological museum in Giza, Egypt, about from the Giza pyramid complex. The Museum hosts over 100,000 artifacts from ancient E ...

Discovery

The tomb of the young king ( KV62) was uncovered almost untouched in the

Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and power ...

in West Thebes by

on 4 November 1922. The lotus chalice was one of the first objects that Carter and his excavators found on entering the tomb; the vessel was on the floor immediately inside the antechamber. This was not its original position.

Material and significance

The lotus chalice is carved from a single piece of

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft Rock (geology), rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word ''alabaster''. In archaeology, the term ''alab ...

. The chalice takes the shape of a white lotus in full bloom, identified by its rounded petals. The supports for the handles are shaped like blue lotus flowers which are flanked by buds growing upward, with the

god In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

Heh seated on a basket (the neb symbol) on the tips of the petals. In each hand Heh holds a palm rib with notches for counting the years; each palm rib rests on the back of a tadpole sitting on a

shen ring In ancient Egypt, a shen ring was a circle with a line tangent to it, represented in hieroglyphs as a stylised loop of a rope, bound to a stick. The tool used by builders and architects. Shen rings can most often be seen in the clutches of Horu ...

. At the upper end of each palm rib there is an

ankh The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a tri ...

symbol, the sign of life. This is a typical depiction of the god of the "million years", the god of infinity and eternity: the palm rib is the

hieroglyph Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

for year, while the tadpole represented 100,000 and the shen ring symbolised eternity. A kneeling image of the god was the hieroglyph for the number "one million". The same motif is found on other items from the tomb like the cedar chair (JE 62029, find number 87). The chalice therefore symbolises the infinite and eternal life of King Tutankhamun. The lotus is significant in

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian pantheon, Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part ...

for the birth of the sun god, who emerged from the lotus, after it had risen out of the flood of the primeval waters of

Nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

. The name of the king in the centre of the white open flower therefore symbolised his rebirth. This iconography is seen more literally in the Head of Nefertem which depicts Tutankhamun emerging from a blue lotus as the newly risen sun god.

Inscriptions

The inscriptions are engraved and filled with blue pigment. Howard Carter copied the inscriptions and asked

Alan Gardiner Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century. Personal li ...

to provide a translation, since he required this for publication. The main lotus, which forms the actual cup, had the king's prenomen or throne name 'Nebkheperure' and his nomen or personal name 'Tutankhamun' inscribed on it with the epithet 'beloved of Amun-Re, lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands and lord of heaven, given life for ever.' The writing runs from right to left. The inscription on the rim of the chalice is to be read in two directions. From left to right, beginning with the central

is the full five-fold titulary of Tutankhamun: : May (he) live, the Horus Mighty Bull, beautiful of birth, the Two Ladies Goodly of Laws, who pacifies the Two Lands, the Horus of Gold Exalted of Crowns, who placates the gods, King of Upper and Lower Egypt and the Lord of the Two Lands Nebkheperure, given life. From right to left, beginning again with the

symbol, is the following: : May your '' ka'' live, may you spend millions of years, you who love Thebes, sitting with your face to the north wind, your eyes beholding happiness.Nicholas Reeves, John H. Taylor: ''Howard Carter before Tutankhamun.'' British Museum Press; London 1992, , p. 188; T. G. H. James: ''Tutanchamun. Der ewige Glanz des jungen Pharaos.'' Köln 2000, p. 311. Because of the inscription, Howard Carter called the lotus chalice the ''King's Wishing Cup''. The wish inscription from the lotus chalice is quoted on the second gravestone of Howard Carter.

Display

In addition to being displayed in the

in Cairo, the lotus chalice was among the original finds selected for the first temporary exhibition of the

grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are items buried along with a body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into an afterlife, or offerings to gods. Grave goods may be classed by researche ...

of Tutankhamun. It was also on display with exhibition number 39 in the world-touring '' Treasures of Tutankhamun'' exhibition.

Bibliography

* Jürgen Settgast. ''Alabaster-Kelch'' in Ausstellungskatalog ''Tutanchamun in Köln.'' von Zabern, Mainz 1980, , p. 138. *

Zahi Hawass Zahi Abass Hawass (; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptians, Egyptian archaeology, archaeologist, Egyptology, Egyptologist, and former Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt), Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, a position he held twice. He has ...

. ''King Tutankhamun. The Treasures Of The Tomb.'' Thames & Hudson, London 2007, , p. 27. * T. G. H. James. ''Tutanchamun. Der ewige Glanz des jungen Pharaos.'' Müller, Köln 2000, , p. 311. * M. V. Seton-Williams: ''Tutanchamun. Der Pharao. Das Grab. Der Goldschatz.'' Ebeling, Luxembourg 1980, , pp. 188–189.

References

External links

* The

Griffith Institute The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient ...

, Oxford
''Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation. The Howard Carter Archives.'' „ Alabaster (calcite) cup or chalice “, Carter No. 014
{{Tutankhamun 14th-century BC works 1922 archaeological discoveries Alabaster Archaeological discoveries in Egypt Art of ancient Egypt Chalices Egyptian Museum Plants in art Tutankhamun