Many votive objects – those dedicated to deities at temples and shrines – are versions of ritual items made in more durable materials. This object is in the distinctive shape of a counterpoise known as a menat: as the counterbalance to a necklace of several strings of faience beads, it would hang down the back of the wearer. But things are rarely purely practical in pharaonic material culture. The menat was itself invested with rich symbolism and meaning, being associated with a range of goddesses.
The fact that this example is made of faience and finely decorated makes it unlikely that it was worn as a piece of jewellery. Female temple staff would shake the beads of their menat-necklaces as part of rituals. This sound would invoke and placate the goddess – Hathor or Bastet being the most common of a spectrum of female (and frequently feline) divinities.
The reverse side carries a hieroglyphic text naming ‘The Perfect God, Lord of the Two Lands, King of Upper and Lower Egypt Khu-nefertem-ra, Son of Ra, Taharqa, beloved of Bastet’. Taharqa was a Kushite ruler of Egypt (c.690-664 BC). In the main scene, Taharqa is shown as a child being suckled by the lioness-headed goddess Bastet; her name, in an archaic spelling, appears above their heads.
