Fragment of a Queen's Face — ca. 1353-1336 B.C.E.

In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where it is currently on view in Gallery 121.

The museum's description:

This striking fragment is from a statue composed of different materials.

The back of the piece shows remains of the mortise that fitted onto a tenon extending from the statue's body which may have been made of Egyptian alabaster to represent a white garment.

Two headdresses might have fit this head: the khat-headdress, or the Nubian wig (as seen on the canopic jar lid [30.8.54] in the same gallery).

The royal woman represented here cannot be identified with certainty.

It is difficult to imagine that the already aged Queen Tiye — the mother of Akhenaten and highly respected as a wise woman at Amarna—was shown as a beauty of such sensuous character.

Queens Nefertiti and Kiya, however, are both possible subjects.