Faience inlays from the funerary temple of Khentkaus II

Abstract

Between 1978 and 1985, the Czech archaeological mission discovered about a hundred fragments of faience inlays and tablets of Egyptian Blue in the funerary temple of Queen Khentkaus II.The present study includes a complete publication of these objects, as well as an analysis of their form and function. Two important motifs could be reconstructed from the preserved faience fragments, namely a band with the titulary of Queen Khentkaus II, and a floral rosette pattern, closely resembling the one that decorates the naos depicted in the wall decoration of the funerary temple of King Sahure. The other fragments depict the queen and her titles, as well as several deities and a king. These facts, together with the evidence of the papyri discovered in the funerary temple of the queen, indicate that the inlays once decorated wooden naoi which held the statues of the queen.