Nemes

The golden mask from the mummy of Tutankhamun wearing the nemes headdress.

The nemes is the striped headcloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt.^[1] It covered the whole crown and back of the head and nape of the neck (sometimes also extending a little way down the back) and had lappets, two large flaps which hung down behind the ears and in front of both shoulders.^[2] It was sometimes combined with the double crown,^[3] as it is on the statues of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. The earliest depiction of the nemes, along with a uraeus, is the ivory label of Den from the 1st Dynasty. It is not a crown in itself, but still symbolizes the pharaoh's power.

Nemes in hieroglyphs

Gallery

• 
  Statue from Abu Simbel, wearing the double crown, the uraeus, and the nemes.
• 
  The Younger Memnon, wearing only the nemes and uraeus (the crown may have been lost)
• 
  The nemes in colour and in profile

Further reading

• Toby A. H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge 1999
• Bruce Graham Trigger, Ancient Egypt: A Social History, Cambridge University Press 1983
• Fragment of a basalt Egyptian-style statue of Ptolemy I

References

1. Katheryn A. Bard, Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, Routledge 1999, p.412
2. Watson Early Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard, Mercer Dictionary of the Bible, Mercer University Press 1990, p.679
3. Max Pol Fouchet, Rescued Treasures of Egypt, McGraw-Hill 1965, p.208

External links

• Media related to Nemes headcloth at Wikimedia Commons