The shields of Tutankhamen

The historical back ground of the shields

In the tomb of Tutankhamen we found some items related to a war although he wasn’t a warrior king. The only item which was true body armor was a close fitting leather cuirass in a crumpled shape in a box in the annex. Clearance of the annex produced in addition 8 shields; four of them ceremonial and the other four were real ones and they are smaller in size. The real ones are of more functional use, they are made of solid construction covered with either antelope or cheetah skin, decorated with a central panel of gilded gesso containing the sA ra and the niswt bity names of the king on top of the nbw sign. Shields were used in wars for protecting the soldiers against arrows, spears and swords. They were in use since the Middle Kingdom. The most important scenes representing soldiers using shields were represented in scenes describing the battle of Qadesh on several of the temples of Ramses II.

The ceremonial shields or votive shields were to commemorate a certain event or to prove the power of the king. This one is made out of wood executed in open work. The scenes also depict the victory of the king upon his enemies and subjugating the foreign lands.

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The upper register:

It is round topped shape and it’s decorated with the representation of the winged solar disk sign of Horus of bHdt

The middle register:

The king is represented with Nubian hair and wearing the composite crown with two horns and surmounted by the solar disk. The king is holding in his right hand the xprS sword of victory. In his left hand he is holding two lions represented in one body we know that they are two lions as we can see two heads and two pairs of limbs of the lions and this indicates how strong is the king and how he subjugates the strong enemies as the lions represent his enemies. At his back you can see the vulture or goddess nxbt and she is crowned with the white crown of Upper Egypt and in between her wings there is a representation of the sign of eternity Sn under the arms of the king and at the back of the vulture there is a flail wscepter. The vulture is standing above the nb sign and three papyrus stems or columns.

The lower register:

There is a representation of the foreign lands which is signified by the word xAswt  

The second shield

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It bears the same idea of subjugation. It shows the king in the form of a sphinx trampling two of his enemies (Nubians as indicated by the black color) under his feet, beneath which is the xAswt sign. Behind him is goddess nxbt perched upon a war fan. The top is ecorated with the winged sun disk which is the sybol of Horus of bHdt.