Vulture Crown: Ancient Egyptian crown
Vulture crown is a crown that the great royal wives and important priestesses in ancient Egypt wore.
It was connected with the vulture goddess Nekhbet. It looked like a vulture with wings hanging down on the sides.The crown was a symbol of protection. Sometimes the hat had another snake called the Uraeus on it too. This snake represented a goddess called Wadjet.
History
In the beginning, the vulture crown was only shown in pictures of goddesses. But in the Fifth Dynasty, queens began to wear this crown all the time in their pictures.
The reason why queens wore the vulture crown was because the vulture is a symbol of motherhood. In ancient Egyptian, the word for "mother" is written with a picture of a vulture called mwt.
As Nekhbet was a goddess who protected people, the vulture crown was connected with her. This made sense because the king was seen as a Horus, and the queen's role was seen as a protector.
One of the first queens to wear the vulture crown was Khentkaus Ii. In the New Kingdom, the vulture on the top of the crown was sometimes changed by a snake called uraeus.
References
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