Khepresh

The Khepresh was an ancient Egyptian royal headdress. It is also known as the Blue Crown. New Kingdom pharaohs are often shown wearing it in battle, but it was also frequently worn in ceremonies. [e.g. Myśliwiec (2004), p.14] It used to be called a war crown by many, but modern historians refrain from defining it thus. [Kuhrt, "op.cit.", p.190]

The Khepresh was made from cloth [Maisels, "op.cit.", p.60] or leather stained blue and was covered with small yellow sun discs. Like many other royal crowns a uraeus was fastened to its front.

History

The earliest mention of the "khepresh" is probably on the Cairo Stela 20799 dating from the Second Intermediate Period. [Edwards "et al.", "op.cit.", p.51] Amenhotep III was apparently the first king to be depicted wearing the Blue Crown, [Myśliwiec (1985), p.27] and during the 18th and 19th Dynasties it was worn by some pharaohs as the main crown. [Bard, "op.cit.", p.412] Under the Kushite Dynasty (747 to 656 BCE) it is no longer depicted. [Shaw, "op.cit.", p.348]

The Blue Crown, or War Crown was also represented in hieroglyphs.

References

* Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Cyril John Gadd, "The Cambridge Ancient History", Cambridge University Press 1975
* Karol Myśliwiec, "Eighteenth Dynasty Before the Amarna Period", Brill 1985
* Amélie Kuhrt, "The Ancient Near East: C.3000-330 B.C.", Taylor & Francis 1995
* Charles Keith Maisels, "Early Civilizations of the Old World", Routledge 2001
* Karol Myśliwiec, "Eros on the Nile", Cornell University Press 2004
* Katheryn A. Bard, "Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt", Routledge 1999
* Ian Shaw, "The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt", Oxford University Press 2003

Footnotes