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

External links

• Media related to Nemes headcloth at Wikimedia Commons