Egyptian Jewelry
Egyptian Jewelry
The Ancient Egyptian, men and women
alike, are great lovers of jewelry and adorned themselves with a
profusion of trinkets. These included a variety of jewelry including
amulets, necklaces, pendants, bracelets, rings, head jewelry, anklets,
diadems, collars, collarettes and insignia. Filigree work on Egyptian
jewelry produced a delicate, lacelike gold or silver wire which was
generally used in buckles and clasps of gold. Gold was the most common
material used in creating Egyptian jewelry as it was easily available
from Nubia but silver had to be imported from further away and was
therefore more rare.
Egyptian Jewelry -
Amulets and Good Luck Charms
Egyptian jewelry was not just made for decorative
purpose. It contained symbols that would provide the wearer, dead or
alive, with protection and prosperity. Many items of jewelry took the
form of amulets designed to ward off the evil eye and protect the wearer
from evil forces both natural and supernatural. Lucky charm jewelry was
fashioned in images of gods, magical signs, hieroglyphs and animals.
Egyptian Jewelry -
Precious and Semi-Precious Stones
Egyptian jewelry was decorated with
a variety of Precious and Semi-Precious Stones. The colors of the stones
were associated with magical symbolism which would provide the wearer of
the jewelry with various forms of protection against evil and good luck.
The precious and semi-precious stones used in the making of Egyptian
jewelry included the following:
-
Turquoise
-
Carnelian
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Chalcedony
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Feldspar
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Amethyst
-
Lapis lazuli
Scarab Beetle
Jewelry and Amulets
The Egyptian Scarab Beetle was used as an amulet or a good luck charm by
both the rich and the poor in Egypt. A depiction of a scarab beetle was
used in the making of jewelry in the form of various types of pendants, bracelets, rings
and necklaces. Scarab jewelry was believed to hold strong magical and religious
properties. The name of the owner
was inscribed on the flat base of the scarab to ensure that protective powers would
be given to the wearer. Scarab pendants, bracelets, rings and necklaces
were often made of precious or semi-precious jewels such as carnelian,
lapis lazuli and turquoise. The colored glass favored by the Ancient
Egyptians called Faience was also
used to create such amulets. Faience was a strong greenish blue glass-like
material, consisting of crushed quartz, lime and alkali.
Egyptian Jewelry
of the Dead
Not satisfied to adorn themselves
when living they loaded the arms, the fingers, the neck, the ears, the
brow, and the ankles of their dead with more or less costly ornaments.
The quantity of jewelry buried in tombs was so considerable that even
that of a minor king such as the boy King Tut was worth a king's ransom.
Much of the funerary jewellery was made merely for show on the day of
the funeral, and betrays its purpose by the slightness of the
workmanship. The favourite jewels of the deceased person were,
nevertheless, frequently buried with him, and the style and finish of
these leave nothing to be desired.
Egyptian Jewelry
- the Ring which served as a Seal
The rings worn by the men in Ancient Egypt were not just simple
ornaments, but an actual necessity. Official documents were not signed,
but sealed; and the seal was good in law. Every Egyptian, therefore, had
his seal, which he kept about his person, ready for use if required. The
poor man's seal was a simple copper or silver ring; the ring of the rich
man was a more or less elaborate jewel covered with chasing and relief
work. The bezel of the ring was movable, and turned upon a pivot. The
ring was frequently set with some kind of precious stone engraved with
the owner's emblem or device as, for example, a scorpion, a lion or a
hawk
Egyptian Jewelry
the Necklace
As in the eyes of her husband his
ring was the one essential ornament, so was her necklace in the
estimation of the Egyptian lady. Necklaces were produced in all sizes
and patterns, some consisting of two or three twists, some of large
links, some of small links, some massive and heavy whilst others were
light and flexible . The humblest peasant girl, as well as the lady of
highest rank, required a necklace.
Egyptian Jewelry
the Bracelet
The style of Egyptian jewelry
described as bracelets were produced in a variety of different types.
Some bracelets were anklets and armlets which might consist of plain
gold rings, both solid and hollow, bordered with plaited chainwork in
imitation of filigree. Other bracelets were designed for wearing on the
wrist, like the bracelets of modern ladies, and were made of small beads
in gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and green felspar. These items of
Egyptian jewelry were often strung on gold wire in a chequer pattern,
each square divided diagonally in halves of different colours. The
bracelets were fastened by means of a gold pin.
Egyptian Jewelry -
Pectorals
A pectoral was a large and elaborate
piece of jewelry worn on the chest and often took the shapes of falcons
and scarabs. Pectorals of gold inlaid with
precious stones were owned by both royal Egyptian men and women. The
pectorals were created using the cloisonne technique where the outlines
of figures and symbols were connected with gold wires that were then
soldered to fine sheets of beaten gold and later inlaid with precious stones
or faience. These unusually large pieces of jewelry are explained by
accessing the following link:
Egyptian Clothing and
Jewelry
The Jewelry of Queen
Ahhotep, the wife of Pharaoh Tao II (1558 BC-1554 BC)
The description of the jewelry found in the tomb belonging to Queen
Ahhotep provides facts and information about the style of the ornate
royal Egyptian jewelry. A beautiful bracelet was found on the wrist of
the queen. The bracelet is made of solid gold and consists of three
parallel bands set with turquoises. On the front a vulture is
represented with outspread wings, the feathers composed of green enamel,
lapis lazuli, and carnelian all set gold. The hair of the mummy of Queen
Ahhotep was drawn through a massive gold diadem, scarcely as large as a
bracelet decorated with blue paste upon an oblong plaque in the centre,
flanked at each side by two little sphinxes. Round her neck was a large
flexible gold chain, finished at each end by a goose's head reversed.
These heads could be linked one in the other, when the chain needed to
be fastened. The scarab pendant to this chain is incrusted upon the
shoulder and wing-sheaths with blue glass faience rayed with gold, the
legs and body being in solid gold. The royal jewelry was completed by a
large collar known as the Ūsekh. This collar of Queen Aahhotep is
finished at each end with a golden hawk's head inlaid with blue enamel,
and consists of rows of scrolls, four-petalled fleurettes, hawks,
vultures, winged birds, crouching jackals, and figures of antelopes
pursued by tigers. Upon the breast, below this collar, hung a square
jewel of the kind known as "pectoral ornaments".
Egyptian Jewelry
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