Thirteen bracelets were placed on the forearms of
Tutankhamun's
mummy, seven on the right and six on
the left. Apart from these thirteen, there were
other bracelets among the mummy wrappings and
elsewhere in the
tomb. This bracelet was placed on
the right forearm, near the elbow. It's band is
composed of nine rows of gold, faience, and glass
beads threaded between six gold spacer bars that
resemble the gold beads and keep the nine rows in
position. The clasp, which is like a pegged mortise
and tenon joint, consists of three members: a hollow
bar with a central slot, attached to one end of a
gold cloison inlaid with a carnelian
udjat
eye, a cylindrical tenon that projects from the
terminal at the free end of the band and fits into
the slot, and a removable gold pin to hold the tenon
in the slot. On the back of the cloison there is the
inscription "Lord of the Two Lands, image of Ra,
Nebkheperura, ruler of order, given life like Ra for
ever and ever." The engraver has inverted the signs
for the Two Lands. It is exceptional, but not
without parallel, to find the epithet "ruler of
order" after the king's throne name. Both the eye
and the cloison have figures of an uraeus with the
double crown at the end opposite to the clasp.
The
udjat eye consists of a human eye and eyebrow
to which are added the markings on a falcon's head;
it is thus symbolical of both
Horus, the son of
Osiris and
Isis, who is represented in human form,
and the sky-god named Horus, who is represented
either as a falcon or as a man with a falcon's head.
The word udjat means "sound, healthy" and it
was used by the
ancient Egyptians as a name for the
eye that Horus had lost when fighting with the god
Seth to avenge the murder of Osiris. According to
the myth, Seth tore the eye into fragments, but
Thoth, the god of writing, wisdom, and magic, found
the fragments and put them together. He restored the
eye to health by spitting on it and then gave it
back to Horus, and he, in turn, gave it back to
life.
Filial piety was one of the virtues symbolized by
the udjat eye: it could serve as a substitute for
any of the offerings that an eldest son was supposed
to provide daily at the tomb of his father. It was
also thought to be a potent amulet against sickness
and to be capable of restoring the dead to life, as
it had done for Osiris. Both the right and left eyes
are represented in the udjat form, but the
right is more common, perhaps through the influence
of another myth, according to which the sun was the
right, and the moon the left eye of the sky-god; the
sun was regarded as the more powerful. With the
exception of the scarab, the udjat was the
most popular amulet in ancient Egypt.