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During the reconstruction of the Egyptian Galleries it has fortunately been possible
to keep much of the Museum's extraordinarycollection of Egyptian jewelry on display,
including the "Lahun Treasure" and the "Treasure of the Three Princesses," both
world-famous.With the reopening of the Jewelry Room, it may be rewarding to ex-
amine some of the pieces that have been inaccessible and are less well known -and
also to look once again at a few of our more familiar examples.
The reasons for acquiring and wearing jewelry in the Western world are many
adornment, ostentation, sentiment, as an investment, sometimes as a religious symbol.
Few of us, however, would admit to putting much faith in the type of charm that
dangles from our bracelets, or in the "lucky pieces" tucked away in our pockets.
Nevertheless, jewelry was first worn for its amuletic value: material, design, and color
were still being combined to form talismansfor the Egyptian at the end of the dynastic
period, as for the earliest wandererover the desert. The prehistoricEgyptian, like other
primitive people, tied various objects (whose exact significance we can only guess at)
around his neck and waist, wrists and ankles, in the hope of protection from a hostile
world. He felt himself surrounded by powers he did not understand. The bright day-
time sky and the darkness of the night, the desert itself, the river whose inundation
suddenly made the desert bloom, the sun, the moon, the wind, the spirits of the dead,
the animals of the desert and of the swamps (to him another kind of people) - these
were the forces with which he had to reckon. Now and then he would pick up a stone
that attracted his attention; it might be blue like the sky, or green like fresh vegetation
or red like blood. It might be a shiny yellow stone that didn't break when he hit it
with another but flattened and spread,and then bent, and became more and more shiny.
Sometimes he found other strange stones with similar properties, especially around a
campfire:perhapsif he put an unpromisinglump into the fire it too would change into
something shiny that one could flatten and bend. But the strange yellow stone never
got dull, as the others did in time. Surely the very gods must be made of this gleaming,
indestructible material.
i. Teye, Mistressof the Harem, Dynasty XVII, about 1375 B.C. Wood, detailspainted and inlaid,
gold, and blueglass).Heightincludingbase912 inches.
with necklaceof realbeads(carnelian,
RogersFund, 41.2.10
223
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I) -
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I
"
"
2. Seatedfigure, PredynasticPeriod,
about 3500 B.C. Unbaked clay,
with painted decoration in red, By the time the clay statuette in Figure 2 standard of living quickly reached new
wasmade,it wasrealizedthat what werepri- heights. Nevertheless, jewelry of the oldest
green, and black representing
marily talismanscould also be attractive. dynasties is rare, largely because tombs have
jewelry and possibly tattooing. Girls such as this knew that a line of greenalmost always been robbed of intrinsically
Height 9 inches. RogersFund,
paintaroundupslanting,largeblackeyes not precious materials; the robbery often occurred
07.228.71
only protectedthem from the blazingdivin- directly after the funeral. The outstanding
ity of the sun but enhancedtheir beauty (we jewelry from the first two dynasties comes
still admireshadowyblack eyes, though our from the tomb of Djer, the third king of
standardsof beauty may have changed in Egypt. A workman sent to clear out the tomb
other respects).And in additionto other or- in the reign of Amenophis III (about I400
naments, the figure wears two necklacesof B.C.) came on a body, probably that of Djer
pretty greenand red beadsaroundher neck, himself, and on investigation found four
for the hardeststonescould now be polished bracelets still in place. In his hurry to con-
and drilledfor stringing.It shouldbe under- ceal his treasure he tore off wrist, wrappings,
stood that the Egyptiansdid not have access and bracelets all together, and pushed them
to the flashingstones we now associatewith into a hole at the top of a wall. He never re-
the word"jewel."The stonesthey considered covered them, and there they remained an-
finest were the ones we call semiprecious, other thirty-three centuries, until discovered
which they valuedfor their color:turquoise, by the founder of modern archaeology,
carnelian,lapis lazuli, amethyst,green felds-
Flinders Petrie. This jewelry, now in Cairo,
par, and red, green, black,and yellow jasperdemonstrates a mastery of such technical
-all hardand difficultto work. By 4000 B.C. problems as the casting and soldering of gold,
the Egyptiansalsoknewhow to coat the soft, and unusual inventiveness of design and har-
whitish stone we call steatite with a clear mony of color. Our own earliest important
greenor blue glaze (Figure3) and so imitate piece is a plain gold bracelet (Figure I ) from
the rare turquoiseand feldspar, though it the tomb of Khasekhemwy, the last king of
would be anothertwo thousandyearsbefore Dynasty II (about 2700 B.C.), whose annals
they tried to make little beadsof the glaze record his erection of the first stone building
alone without any base, and five hundred in history.
more before they realizedthat they had in- Jewelry of the Old Kingdom (Dynasties
vented glass. III-VI) is also rarely preserved, although it
When dynastic history began, with the is widely represented on statues and reliefs.
unificationof Egypt about 3o00 B.c., the The most popular pieces, if we can trust the
,24
Thejewelry illustratedin this articleis divided
byfunction, and examplesare arrangedchrono-
logically to show the historicaldevelopment
of eachform.
Necklaces
3 (opposite). Beads of bone, shell, hard stone,
and glazed steatite, PredynasticPeriod,
about 4000 B.C. Largestnecklace92 inches
across. Rogers Fund, 32.2.26-28, 36-38
=^7;
!-tYeThe exasperatedmonarchwas forced to call
9f in the courtmagicianto retrievethe pendant.
She must have been a very pretty girl.
Althoughthe ancientEgyptians,like their
2
~f'g9~~~~ ~ ~{t. modern descendants (and, some would claim,
archaeologistsas well) continued to plunder
226
Broadcollars
6 (opposite, above). Wah's, Dynasty xi, about
2030 B.C. Cylindricalbeads, leaf-shaped
228
- ,~~~~~~~~~~.
eyes of her plaster mask gazing through the
eyes painted on her coffins. The coffins were
small, but the wrapped mummy with its A,-4
it
. A.0
--
-
LM
mask was much smaller, and as we came to Y~~~??-rIL
ABOVE:
12, 13. Sit-Hathor-Yunet's,Dynasty xiiI, about 1850 B.C. Above: Two pairs of
flexible bracelets,with lion amulets and tongue-and-grooveclasps of gold,
and beads of turquoise,carnelian,and gold. Length53 inches. Below:
Ankletsof amethystand gold. Length13 inches.RogersFund, with contribution
from Henry Walters, 16.1.12-15, I6.I.7a, b
14. From the tomb of the ThreePrincesses,Dynasty xviii, about 1450 B.C.
Gold, with hinge and pin clasp, inscribedwithin: "The Good God
Men-Kheper-Re,Son of Re, Tuthmosis, Given Life Forever"(the throne
and personal names of TuthmosisIII). Diameter 22 inches. Fletcher
Fund, 26.8.133-134
LEFT:
I5. Roman Period, i centuryA.D. Gold, with hinge and pin clasp, ornamented
withfiguresfrom classical mythologyflanked by crownedserpents
(probablythose of Isis and Serapis). RogersFund, 23.2.1
229
in the Museum. At any rate, Wah was given spirals and hieroglyphs. It is exceptionally
Ni
a corner in Meket-Re's tomb. His mummy, large, however, made of solid silver, and its
found intact by our Expedition, remained so back is unique, inlaid in pale gold with the
until 1936, when an X-ray examination re- names and titles of Wah and his patron, the
vealed the presence of a broad collar, neck- Chancellor Meket-Re. The scarab shows signs
laces, bracelets, scarabs,a mouse, a lizard, and of having been worn during Wah's lifetime,
a cricket, all wrapped in the bandages-the but for the burial it was strung up on heavy
last three presumably by oversight. So Wah linen cord with one barrel-shaped and one
was unwrapped, his jewelry was removed, and cylindrical bead, to form an amulet whose
_ r his bandages (all 460 square yards of them) exact significance we do not know.
were replaced exactly as they had been on his Wah, like Miuyet, lived at Thebes, the
IL body. He proved to have been a man of about capital of the kings of Dynasty XI. The
thirty years of age, small, with delicate fea- founder of Dynasty XII, Amenemhet I,
tures, who suffered from a disease of the bones moved his seat of government to the north;
/ of the foot. his cemetery was at Lisht, where our Expedi-
Wah's necklaces are reminiscent of those tion excavated for many years. The House
of Miuyet, but his ball beads are even larger, Mistress Senebtisy was apparently related to
and are of hollow silver. His broad collar (Fig- Amenemhet's vizier and was buried near him.
ure 6) is faience of an intense green-blue and, She was a rich woman, and, although her
like the rest of his jewelry, is on its original tomb was small, her funerary equipment was
Amuletsand rinl string (ancient string is friable and must usu- expensive (Figure 7). But she decided to
i6. Wah'sscarab,Dynasty XI, ally be replaced). wear for her journey to the next world a
about 2030 B.C. Silver zwith The most interesting piece is the scarab simple but charming circlet of looped gold
mounted as amuletic shown in Figure 16. Scarabs, the best-known wire she had been fond of in life. It is shown
gold inlays;
braceletwith steatitebeads on of all Egyptian antiquities, were just coming (Figure 23) on a cast of a head of Queen
original string. Length of scarab into vogue in Wah's day. They were a com- Nefretity, and the wig is modern. Senebtisy's
I1 inches. Museum E'xcava- bined seal and amulet, necessary to the Egyp- own wig could not be preserved, but enough
tions at Thebes, Roger.s Fund, tians, who did not have locks and keys, cup- was left to show that the little gold flowers,
40.3.12
boards and drawers. Their possessions were resembling daisies, were sewed to the hair at
normally stored in chests, baskets, and jars, regular intervals and were worn with the
am
I7. Sit-Hathor-Yunet's tulets, to which were tied up with cords; over the knot circlet. The Egyptians loved flowers and, par-
be tied to the wrist, Dyz2astyxiI, was a lump of clay into which the owner's ticularly in the earlier representations, were
about 1850 B.C. Gold hiero- private seal was impressed. These seals took often shown with their hair held in place with
glyphic signs, inlaid wiith a variety of forms, often animal, of which that twisted garlands; many later elements of de-
carnelian and blue ancI green of the scarab beetle became the most popular, sign go back to these natural forms. Seneb-
paste, meaning (from I'eftto as its naturally flat underside was suitable for tisy's flowers, in turn, are echoed in the wig
right) "Universal Pou/er," engraving. Scarabs are never real beetles, but ornaments of brightly colored faience some-
"Happiness," "All fe
Li5 and copies in various stones, faience, or some- times worn by ladies of the New Kingdom.
Protection," "The He6zrt of the times metal, of the natural form (Figures I9, Senebtisy lived about fifty years after Wall;
Two Gods Is Contented d," and, 20, 21); the expert can date a scarab by the Princess Sit-Hathor-Yunet I30 after Seneb-
again, "Universal Pou ver." style of its back and sides, by its inscription, tisy. This princess was the daughter, sister,
Height of largest %7 inc -h.Rogers and often by its material. and aunt of kings who ruled during what
Fund, with contributioinfrom Wah's scarab is of a typical Middle King- later generations looked back on as Egypt's
Henry Walters, z6. .i16-20 dom style, its base engraved with a design of golden age. Her mummy has disappeared, but
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she must have been tiny, for her jewelry jewelry and related objects ever to appear on
would have fitted Senebtisy, who was just the market-was made four hundred years 1%.
four feet eight inches tall. She could not have later, in Dynasty XVIII, for three minor
been less than forty when she died, even if wives of Tuthmosis III: Syrian girls called
she were the child of her father's old age, as Merhet, Menwy, and Merty. They had been
her brother reigned for thirty-five years, and buried with their treasure about I450 B.C., in I8. Catfishpendant, Dynasty xII,
she lived into the reign of her nephew. a tomb discovered and plundered during the about i850 B.C. Turquoise,
Sit-Hathor-Yunet's jewelry (Figures Io, First World War by inhabitants of a nearby withfins and tail ofgold. Length
I2, I3, I7) is one of the glories of the Metro- village. The circumstances of the discovery 4 inch. Museum Excavations
politan Museum. The story of its discovery and the jewelry itself were described by Mr. at Lisht, RogersFund,
has been told many times; how it remained Winlock in The Treasure of Three Egyptian 09.180.1182
safely hidden in a niche in the tomb, and how Princesses,in I948. By that time the Museum
the individual elements and inlays, disordered had been able to acquire three sets of gold,
by ancient floods, were removed one by one silver, glass, and fine stone tableware (the glass
by the English archaeologist Guy Brunton, vessels among the earliest ever made); three
who remained in the niche without leaving it sets of cosmetic jars mounted in gold; two
for five days and nights, so that we know not silver and gold mirrors; three sets of funerary
a single fragment was lost. jewelry of gold; and jewelry worn during life I9. Amethystscarab, set in gold
The pectoral ornament (Figure io) given -on special occasions or in the harem- most base, Dynasty xiI, about i860
her by her father, Sesostris II, is considered of which showed signs of use. The latter jewel- B.C. A gold wire passes through
one of the two finest antiquities in the Egyp- ry included bracelets, anklets, rings, necklaces, the scaraband is knottedbehind
tian collection (the other is the statue of earrings, a circlet, a headdress, parts of three like a piece of string.Diameter
Haremhab in the Sculpture Court), and the broad collars, one girdle and parts of two 4 inch. CarnarvonCollection,
finest piece of jewelry to have come down others, and parts of two belts-all of gold Gift of Edward S. Harkness,
from ancient Egypt. Although one of the embellished with brightly colored stones or 26.7.756
best-known of Egyptian antiquities it never glass.
loses its fascination. Elegant in design and of These objects and a number of large stone 20. Small turquoisescarab,Dynasty
superb workmanship, it bears the cartouche vessels had all found their way into the hands xii, about 800o B.C. Tapered
of Sesostris, supported by two falcons repre- of dealers by the early twenties and were ac- ends of gold wire pass through
senting the sun god and by hieroglyphs read- quired in lots. At the time of the last pur- the scarab and are wound
ing "hundreds of thousands of years" and chase, however, it was known that one lot had at the sides. Diameter 4 inch.
"life." The base is of gold, to which are sol- got away. This was understood to consist of Museum Excavations at Lisht,
dered fine gold wires to outline the details of many elements of jewelry, including a number Rogers Fund, 15.3.205
the design. Each little detail is filled with a of " 'nasturtium seed' beads packed in a cigar-
minute piece of turquoise, lapis lazuli, or car- ette box" and additional gold vessels. These 21. Gold scarabfrom the tomb of
nelian, cut to exact size; the eyes of the falcons elements and two goblets, each of a shape not the Three Princesses,Dynasty
are of garnet. In all there are 372 pieces of represented in the earlier purchases, were xvIIi, about 1450 B.C. Gold
semiprecious stone, each cut and polished finally acquired in 1958. swivel mounting,thepin passing
separately. The details of the design are mod- When the treasure first became known it throughcaps on thefundus.
eled and engraved on the golden back, which was believed to have been undisturbed until Diameter 8 inch. Carnarvon
in its own way is as extraordinary as the found by the villagers. Nevertheless, certain Collection, Gift of Edward S.
brightly colored front. objects we should have expected to find in Harkness, 22.9.3
Our second "treasure" (Figures 5, I4, 2i, such a burial are missing, among them the
24-27) - the most extensive find of Egyptian third mirror, ritual vessels (of which we have 22. Heavy gold signet of an official
of Tutankhamen,whose name
I9 20 21 22 it bears, Dynasty xviii, about
I355 B.C. 112 inches from
front to back. Gift of Edward S.
Harkness, 22.9.3
I
At~ ,Z"
Ci
two handles)and other instrumentsused in
religious ceremonies,crown pieces for two
headdresses,two additional circlets, and a
third belt (for which we have the clasp).
These objects would have been of great in-
trinsicvalue. We cannot tell now whetherall
of them ever existed, whether they were
stolen at the time of the funeral,or whether
the man or men to whose share they fell in
I916 hammered them down to sell as gold.
But it is probablethat if they still survived
in their originalform they would have come
to light by now.
Owing to the regrettableway in which the
tomb was clearedit will never be possibleto
say with certaintyhow the varioussmallele-
mentswereoriginallycombined.Undoubted-
ly many are missing,lost in the darknessas
the thieves were dividing their loot; a few
have been dispersedamongother collections.
But the most difficultproblemsof sortingand
arranginghadbeenmet by Mr. Winlockwhen
the earlierpurchasewas first put on display,
and many of the recentlyacquiredpieces be-
long to jewelry already partially assembled
by him, including the broad collars, belts,
and girdles.In additionwe now have another
girdle, made of the gold nasturtiumseedsre-
ferredto above, a secondheaddress,and ele-
mentspresumablyfromthe missingthirdone.
For the restrungcollars,we have parallels
in wall paintingsof the period, which show
that the fashion in these traditional orna-
ments had changed.Instead of consistingof
solid rows of tubular beads as before, the
smarterof the new collarswere made up of
elementslike ours,of many formsand colors,
meshing together to form an openworkde-
sign (Figure8 is a later exampleof the type).
The most importantof the jewels, however,
are the headdresses.Unlike the broadcollars
-unusually elaborate examples of a well-
known article of dress-the headdressesare
unique. Two are composedof rosettesof in-
laid gold, fitted togetherto makelong, taper-
ing strandsthat in turn meshat the sides.On
one of these (Figure25), the solid fabricthus
formedis joined to a crownpiece, giving the
effect of a wig of gold, encrustedwith glass
'
.,
Headdresses
All headdressesare shown on casts of a
quartzitehead of Queen Nefretity(Dynasty
xviii, about I370 B.c.), with modernwigs
that illustrateancientstyles of hairdressing.
233
26. Gazelle circletfrom the tomb of
the ThreePrincesses.Two
flexible bands of gold, joined in
front and tied with a cord
behind. Two gazelles' heads are
fastened to the center,flanked
above and on each side by two
rosettesinlaid with carnelian
and blue and greenglass. Length
offorehead band 17 inches.
Gift of George F. Baker and
Mr. and Mrs. V. Everit Macy,
26.8.99
234