{"id":1063,"date":"2021-09-02T15:55:35","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T08:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewelry-designstudio.com\/?post_type=blogs&p=1063"},"modified":"2022-08-24T15:25:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T08:25:07","slug":"jewelry-trend-forecasting-2","status":"publish","type":"blogs","link":"https:\/\/jewelry-designstudio.com\/en\/blogs\/jewelry-trend-forecasting-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian Jewelry: A Window into Ancient Culture\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Moroney Johns Hopkins University<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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Broad collar of Nefer Amulets, ca. 1504\u20131450 BCE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Because jewelry was so universal and pervasive we can learn a vast amount from studying even a single bead. Yet much of the ancient jewelry pieces in modern collections, especially those gathered in the 19th and early 20th centuries, have little to no recorded archaeological context \u2013 meaning they lack critical information for full understanding. These pieces also have often been trivialized as purely aesthetic rather than informative, marginalizing the potential and importance of studying jewelry. Instead of being dismissed, jewelry should be used as scholarly objects to better understand ancient Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Burial trends, ritual practices, manufacturing skills and resource and material availability are just a few avenues to explore through jewelry. Such study, in turn, can provide essential information on a range of topics, including trade, gender, class, economics, military power and political authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            For Egyptian jewelry, styles, material choices, fabrication techniques and even object type and decorative meaning changed over time. Gemstones such as lapis and turquoise were imported and thus often less available during unstable political periods. Meanwhile, some locally available materials were popular only during certain periods: Purple amethyst was the rage during the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2055-1650 BCE), while glass was used in some 18th-dynasty royal and elite jewelry, such as King Tutankhamun\u2019s pectorals and inlaid mummy mask. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\" Cowrie shell girdle of Sithathoryunet, c. 1887\u20131813 BCE Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Egyptians wore some type of jewelry during their lifetimes, and almost every Egyptian was buried with some form of adornment. The materials chosen and the quality of workmanship often marked the status of the owner or wearer. The elaborate gold masks and inlaid pectorals of the 21st and 22nd-dynasty kings of Tanis (ca. 1069-945 BCE) and the intricate Middle Kingdom princess girdles and bracelets from their burials at Lahun and Dashur were of far different quality than a simple strung clay bead found in a poor individual\u2019s burial. Some simpler objects such as single strung barrel-shaped carnelian swr.t beads were also common in elite burials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\". Limestone wall painting in two registers depicting the activities of jewelry-makers and precious-metal workers Photo: British Museum<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of quality, these were objects of display, protection and power. Most excavated jewelry comes from tombs or from a few temple foundation deposits. Aside from the objects themselves, we can learn much from texts and images describing and depicting adornments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, some jewelry types are known only from depictions on statues and reliefs. A few Egyptian jewelry workshops have been excavated, but most of what we know about ancient craftsmen and their techniques comes from tomb scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  In the New Kingdom, tomb scenes of Sobekhotep and Rekhmire, some workmen drill beads with quadruple and triple bow drills while others string beads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jewelry was both decorative and purposeful. One bead may reveal much, especially if archaeological context is known. Its material - ceramic, metal, certain stones - can potentially be sourced and origin thus understood. Scientific analysis, such as LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) and x-ray florescence, allows for compositional analysis and comparisons. Even the exact gemstone quarry or the precise location of Nile clay can sometimes be identified. Examining a bead under a microscope can also yield clues regarding composition and use. For example, glass and glazed objects often produce visible bubbles; if a bead\u2019s piercing shows signs of wear, it probably was worn and displayed before final deposit in a burial. Some jewelry was made strictly for burial, and bracelets and other adornments have been found simply laid on mummies without being fastened.\"\". <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A diadem with two gazelle heads, c. 1479\u20131425 BCE. Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

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Jewelry often held apotropaic powers for its wearer - both living and dead. Color and material were significant, protecting the living from disease and danger and, wrapped within a mummy\u2019s bandages, guarding the deceased for eternity. The Book of the Dead, the famed New Kingdom funerary document, prescribes specific materials for certain amulets and often detailed where on the body to include them. Chapter 156 called for red jasper for the girdle tie of the goddess Isis, which was placed on the throat of the mummy. Chapters 159 and 160 assigned green feldspar for papyrus amulets, and Chapter 30 prescribed what is believed to be green jasper for the heart scarab. The heart scarab amulet was created to aid the deceased in the weighing of the heart ritual in which the justice of one\u2019s heart was weighed against the feather of truth\/Maat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kings bestowed favor and military honors through jewelry. Based on excavated examples from Nubia, pierced and polished oyster shells inscribed with the cartouche of King Senwosret I were probably worn by soldiers in the Middle Kingdom. In the 18th dynasty, fly-shaped \u201cGolden Fly\u201d pendants or \u201cThe Order of the Golden Fly\u201d were given as military rewards. Three large gold flies were found in the burial assemblage of Queen Aahhotep, mother of 17th-dynasty King Ahmose and grandmother of King Amenhotep I, the founder of the 18th dynasty. She was lauded in Ahmose\u2019s Year 18 Karnak stela as a great warrior who fought against the rebel Hyksos, and her gold flies are further evidence of her military prowess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shell inscribed with the cartouche of Senwosret I, c. 1981\u20131550 BCE Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

            Jewelry even can counter conventional wisdom. Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1069-664 BCE) openwork faience spacer beads include complex designs, which demonstrate exquisite skill. These were made during a period traditionally dismissed as declining and even chaotic politically and socially. But these beads suggest a different narrative. The royal and religious themes of these beads were once reserved for temple walls, and this change of medium demonstrates a change in religious beliefs - or at least in religious decorum. By demonstrating artisans\u2019 sophisticated skills, they are further evidence of the need for nuisance when studying and describing this complicated period in Egyptian history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cuff Bracelets Decorated with Cats, c. 1479\u20131425 BCE Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

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Throughout ancient Egypt, jewelry was offered at temples, buried in tombs, stolen from mummies, presented as gifts and rewards, and worn to the temple and tomb, as well as to the marketplace. Small, sometimes valuable and often intricate, jewelry presents intimate and important ways to study Egyptian culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"  String of beads, Middle Kingdom, Dahshur. De Morgan excavations, 1894\u201395 Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/h6>\n\n\n