Votive Plaque of King Tanyidamani

Description The fragment, discovered in the lion temple at Meroë, capital of the Meroitic Kingdom, was part of a commemorative monument to King Tanyidamani. One side depicts the ruler in royal costume with ram's-head earrings, an Egyptian crown, and a scepter in his hand. An image of the lion-headed war- and fertility-god Apedemak appears on the other side. The deity holds a bundle of sorghum and a scepter topped with a small seated lion. The inscriptions are in Meroitic script and name the king and the god.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
1/01/1941	Treatment	cleaned
9/15/1976	Treatment	technical study; cleaned; loss compensation; re-housed
1/05/1980	Treatment	examined for loan
10/13/1992	Examination	other
5/10/1995	Loan Consideration	examined for loan
4/26/1996	Loan Consideration	examined for loan
1/02/1997	Examination	condition
10/20/1998	Examination	survey
11/23/1999	Treatment	cleaned; loss compensation; coated

Exhibitions

• Africa in Antiquity: The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; The Hague Municipal Museum, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague. 1978-1979.
• Africa: The Art of a Continent. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. 1996.
• Egypt in Africa. Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis. 1996.

Provenance Excavated by John Garstang, 1909-1910, in the Temple of Apedemak, Meroe; William MacGregor, Tamworth, Staffordshire, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, June 26-29 and July 4-6, 1922, no. 469; Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris, 1922, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1923, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1923