Amarna Usekh Collar

A usekh collar (from the Egyptian wskh, meaning “broad” or “wide”) is a wide, multi-rowed necklace that spreads across the shoulders and chest and worn as a striking symbol of beauty, status, and splendour in Ancient Egypt.

While many such collars were originally made from fresh flowers and other perishable materials, examples like this were produced in faience to imitate their appearance and preserve their splendour.

Usekh Collars through the Ages of Ancient Egypt

The rows evoke floral motifs, including a central band of cornflowers, three rows of dates, and an outer border of lotus petals, linked by strands of small ring beads. The rows terminate in rectangular plaques decorated with blue lotus blossoms, buds, poppy petals, and persea fruit. The present stringing is modern.

Formerly in the collection of Howard Carter, the collar was acquired by the Met Museum (40.2.5) from his estate in London in 1940.

Measurements: Faience; Diam. 31.5 cm (12 3/8 in) Terminals: L. 8.7 cm (3 7/16 in.); W. 2.5 cm (1 in.); Th. 0.6 cm (1/4 in.)

Amarna Period: The age of the Aten

In the days when Akhenaten’s sun-drenched court shimmered beneath the desert sky, jewellery was never merely adornment, it was theology in colour. This broad collar, formed of technicolour faience beads of oval shapes, feels as if it were crafted from the very rays of the Aten itself, caught mid-beam and coaxed into beads.

Measuring just over twelve inches across, its shallow arc once rested upon a graceful pair of collarbones; perhaps those of a courtier who walked in the luminous wake of Nefertiti. There is an unmistakable Amarna softness to it, with the floral colours, bringing to mind the Hymn to the Aten and Akhenaten’s love for the agriculture his sole-god provides. As well as the gentle curve, the soothing palette, the sense that light itself has been persuaded to curl around the neck.

The terminals, neat little lengths of faience shaped for fastening, complete the piece with effortless elegance, reminding us that even the practical bits of Amarna life were touched by artistry.

Faience, that miraculous not-quite-earth, not-quite-glass substance, glows here with the turquoise sheen loved so dearly in this era. It was a colour of life, of renewal, of the Nile’s promise; and in Akhenaten’s city, it must have sparkled brilliantly against linen robes in those late afternoon processions.

Today, the collar rests quietly in New York, far from Akhetaten’s sun. Yet its shimmer has not dimmed. One glimpse, and you can almost hear the soft rustle of fine linen, the distant hymn to the Aten, and the whisper of desert wind brushing past the palace colonnades.

A little circle of light, surviving from an age that worshipped it.