Bust of the god Amun

This basalt statue of the god Amun was carved during the time of Tutankhamun. Around 1330 BCE, the young Tutankhamun became the eleventh pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, following the death of his father, Akhenaten. His short reign marked the return of Amun, the universal god and protector of royalty, whose cult had been outlawed by his father and predecessor. This political and religious restoration led to the re-establishment of representations of the god wherever they had previously been destroyed. This was particularly true in Thebes, Amun’s preeminent city, and in the temples of Karnak and Luxor. This statue is neither broken nor unfinished; it is in fact a piece made to measure, to be fixed in exactly the right place with a tenon, thus completing and restoring a statue of the god Amun that had been partially vandalised during the time of the ‘Amarna heresy’.