Vulture crown

History

The vulture crown was initially only seen in depictions of goddesses. From the Fifth Dynasty onwards, however, queens began to wear the headdress regularly as part of their iconography. The association of Nekhbet with the queen stemmed from the vulture's symbolism of motherhood; the hieroglyph for the vulture, mwt, was used to write the word for "mother". Because Nekhbet was a protector goddess, the queen's affiliation with her complemented the king's role as the embodiment of the falcon god Horus.

Khentkaus II was one of the first queens to wear the vulture headdress. In the New Kingdom, the vulture's head on the crown was more frequently replaced by the uraeus.