This head of Het-Hert was excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie at Serabit el-Kadim. It is from the New Kingdom, during the reign of Ramesses II, and the face is modeled after that of Queen Nefertari.
These pictures show (above) the present-day archaeological site of Serabit el-Kadim, in the Sinai desert, and a reconstruction (below) of the Temple of Het-Hert at this site. The miners who lived near this site excavated for turquoise, copper, and hematite. Het-Hert was known here as the "Lady of Turquoise." The temple was built primarily during the Middle and New Kingdom. Its approach is dotted with many caves which are fronted by enclosures and contain numerous stelae. It is thought that after leaving offerings and prayers for Het-Hert, the miners may have slept in the nearby caves in order to receive oracular dreams concerning the location of mining deposits.
References for images
Head of Het-Hert, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum of the University of Cambridge, in Eleni Vassilika's Egyptian Art
Archaeological site of Serabit-el-Kadim and its reconstruction, in Sydney Aufrere's L'Égypte Restituée: Sites et temples des déserts.Bibliography
Valbelle, Dominique and Charles Bonnet, le sanctuaire d'Hathor maîtress de la turquoise: Sérabit el-Khadim au Moyen Empire, Paris, Picard Editeur, c. 1996.
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