Gold Wesekh Collar and Counterpoise: Vulture with Spread Wings and Uraeus Grand Egyptian Museum # 10927

The Vulture and the Uraeus here are representing the two deities Nekhbet and Wadjet and as worn would enable their protection of Tutankhamun. "The name Nekhbet simply means 'she of Elkab' [called Nekheb in the Egyptian language], and the main cult centre of the goddess was located at this site in southern Upper Egypt. However, from the very beginning of Egyptian history, Nekhbet assumed an additional, national importance as tutelary goddess of the whole of Upper Egypt. Depicted as a vulture, Nekhbet joined the cobra goddess of Buto, Wadjet, to form the Two Ladies', divine protectresses of the Two Lands. The balance of opposites which Nekhbet and Wadjet embodied led to the inclusion of the Two Ladies' in the formal titulary of the king, from at least the reign of Semerkhet. The earliest surviving depiction of the Two Ladies' occurs somewhat earlier, on the celebrated ebony label from the tomb of Neith-hotep at Naqada, dating to the right of Aha." (Toby A.H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (Routledge 1999), page 253)