The Ceremonial Chairs

In the tomb of King Tutankhamen we have found several ceremonial chairs all of them found in a good state of preservation.

The first chair:

This ceremonial chair here was found in the annex of the tomb of the king. It is made of cedar wood with some parts gilded. The style of this chair follows the fashion of late Amarna period. It has the traditional three back pillars supporting the seat. The seat is rounded made by five attached pieces of wood ending with two coves. This chair had a special function and was called the eternity chair. Looking at the main scene on the back of the chair we can see it surmounted by the winged solar disk with two pendant ureas. There is a kneeling male figure in the centre of the scene known as god Heh god of infinity. He is usually represented in a kneeling position with his hands raised up to the sky. He is known as the god of millions of years as the word (HH) itself means millions of years. He is kneeling over the nbw sign, meaning gold and has a solar disk over his head with two pendant uraes. He is represented holding in each hand a notched palm rib, sign of years, ending with a frog known as “hfn” meaning 100 000 under the frog there is the Sn sign of durability and eternity, in addition to that we can see that god Heh is hanging in one of his arms the anx sign, sign of life. So we can deduce from all these symbols in the scene that this scene as a whole emphasis eternity and everlasting for the king. We can see on the side of the god two representations of the façade of the Egyptian house better known as the srH. Above this srH there is the god Horus wearing the double crown inside is written:

kA nHt twt ms meaning the mighty bull the birth of king Tutankhamen.

Then on two columns on the side of the chair we can read:

Nswt bity nb tAwy nb xprw ra.

On the other side: sA ra mry.f twt anx imn HkA iwn sm di anx Dt as the main throne, this chair was also decorated with the smA tAwy sign but it is partly destroyed.

There is also a foot stool shown in this vatrain. Upon the foot stool there is a representation of four Nubians and four Asiatic. These representations indicate their submission to the king.

In the middle there is the smA tAwy sign shown in the form of papurus flowers to the right and Lotus flowers to the left. From this representation there is a rope tying kneeling Asiatic and Nubians

The second chair:

This chair here is made of wood and it inlaid with precious and semiprecious stone, this chair is unique in form and representation. At the back of this chair there are three supporting pillars. The seat is also curved and has four coves one at each side of the seat. It is shown very different from other chairs as it represents the skin of a spotted animal which was used as a cover for the seat of the chairs. We could realize the tail and the legs of the animal attached to the lower part of the seat. The decoration on the back seat of the chair is surmounted by a frieze of cobras carrying the sun disc over their heads, in the middle of the frieze there is a solar disc over to empty cartouches, below there is the goddess nxbt spreading her wings protecting the to names of the king on both sides, the decoration is mainly geometrical and in the center there are repeated columns made by ebony wood and inlaid ivory bearing the names and titles of the king. This form of chair reminds us of the folding chairs used on the beach and it makes this chair very unique in its form, the folding legs of the chair are made to represent the neck and the head of two geese with their eyes and lids and with reddish tongues. The white nesses of the head and neck of the geese is inlaid with ivory. Fortunately there is a remain of a part of the smA tAwy sign. On the back side of the chair there is a representation of goddess nxbt spreading out her wings holding the Sn sign in her claws, there is also the protective eye of Horus, the wDt eye. There is a xkrw sign which decorates the upper part of the back side of the chair, there is also the foot stool depicting over it five Nubians and four Asiatic, if added would be nine representing the nine traditional enemies of Egypt.

The child chair of King Tutankhamen:

This chair here takes the same fashion of the other chairs but smaller in size. It is made of ebony and partly inlaid by ivory having three supporting pillars at the back; the seat is rounded with double coves. There is a wooden foot stool by the chair but with no decorations. It is argued that this chair could belong to the princess setamun (the king’s sister) daughter of Amenophis, this is because many chairs almost identical to this one here was found in the princess tomb in the valley of queens in Thebes.