Howard Carter may have thought he'd reached the end of the treasures covering Tutankhamun's mummified body when he found the pharaoh's inimitable death mask. However there was one more beauty to behold, in the shape of the boy-king's amazing gold diadem, or crown. The magnificent piece closely resembles that depicted in two scenes inscribed on Tut's small gold shrine, and carries both the vulture and the cobra symbols, which indicate rule over Upper and Lower Egypt. The crown would have been worn to keep the king's wig in place, and was a lavish evolution of the simple headbands that were worn during Old Kingdom times to keep hair away from the eyes. The golden headband is adorned with carnelian rounds, and hang down at the back as what are known as streamers, both decorated the same way as the rest.
Simpler than the lavish diadem affored to Tutankhamun, the diadem of Sit-Hathor-Iunet is still a marvellous object. A daughter of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Senusret II, Sit-Hathor-Iunet's diadem is topped with the cobra, which represents rule over both Upper and Lower Egypt. The diadem was discovered alongside other fantastic jewellery by Flinders Petrie and Guy Bunton in 1914, in a separate tomb nearby Senusret's. Bunton spent all of his time around the discovery in the tomb - working to extract items by day, and sleeping in it to guard from robbers by night.
