Girdle with cowrie shells of gold

The girdle with golden cowrie shells could have been worn by a small woman. It was slipped over the head and arms to rest on the widest part of her hips and to cross the lowest part of her abdomen.

Such girdles were commonly depicted on the little dolls of wood or faience often found in the Middle Kingdom tombs. The circlet of 9 gold shells forms a girdle, which has 8 intervals into which beads, now missing, would naturally fit.

Gold cowry shells were imitations of the real cowry shells that had been used in belts, bracelets, anklets, and necklaces since the predynastic period. People thought that cowry shells possessed powerful magical properties and increase female fertility.

The use of girdles as a woman’s ornament was widespread in Egypt from the Middle Kingdom and wall paintings often show naked girls clad only with small chains formed by alternating beads and amulets around their hips.

Jewels had mainly a protective function. Precise magical and symbolic characteristics were attributed to stones and precious metals so that the design and choice however, that reached the highest level of skill was the cutting and setting of semi-precious stones.

Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, ca. 1991-1786 BC. Excavated from Dashur. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 30880