Name Bead of Hatshepsut and Senenmut

Swirled bead of black, blue and white glass name bead with hieroglyphic inscription around the sides and on the top with the throne name of Hatshepsut and the name of Senenmut, architect and Chief Steward of Amun. The inscription reads: "the perfect god, Maatkare, beloved of Hathor, resident in Thebes, who presides over Djeser-djeseru [and} the hereditary prince and steward Senenmut". Djeser-djeseru is the name of the queen's funerary temple at Deir el Bahri of which Senenmut is often described as the architect. This is also the site where two other name beads of this type were discovered during excavations carried out by Naville for the Egypt Exploration Fund, season 1893-4. Compare with two examples in the British Museum (1896,0210.18-19) and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (26.7.746). Material described in 1878 by John Gardner Wilkinson as, "of a black and white colour, ... resembling glass, ... supposed to be agate"; and in 1879 by past curator, Charles Gatty, as "basalt with a small streak of quartz running through it".