Egyptian sculpture

TELL EL AMARNA : 151

The form of women’s dress so universal during the other periods of Egyptian art—the long, straight robe—is not found at Tell el Amarna. The king wears, as a rule, the socalled “blue crown,” but he also wears a plain head-dress, possibly some kind of cap; only rarely does he appear in the crown of Upper Egypt. With the blue crown he wears the uraeus on the brow, and from the back fall two streamers over the shoulders. These streamers are represented as flowing out behind his head, and give the effect of rapid motion when he is driving. The general effect of Akhenaten’s costume is of a thin material with fluttering ribbons; there is little or none of the dignity of the earlier Pharaohs. The king and queen almost invariably wear sandals, the wide strap across the instep is fastened to the sole of the sandal near the heel, and a strap is brought between the big and second toes. Similar sandals are worn by the courtiers, both men and women, and they are seen occasionally on some of the servants.

The double line round the cartouches of the king and queen is a marked character of the inscriptions of Tell el Amarna; the cartouches of the Aten also are engraved in the same way. As a rule the hieroglyphs are incised, and not in relief.