Mandrake and Lotus Broad Collar
This luminous broad collar, fashioned from glazed composition, is a jewel of colour and meaning. Its three openwork rows bloom like the gardens of Amarna, with the upper ring bearing yellow mandrake fruits, beneath them unfurl green fronds of date palm, and below, a fringe of yellow, white, and mauve lotus petals. Between each pendant dance tiny discs of red, blue, and gold, while the triangular terminals at each end take the form of lotus blossoms, symbol of rebirth.
The Secret Language of Flowers in Egyptian Tombs
The collar’s artistry evokes both the fertility of the earth and the transcendence of the spirit; themes central to the Amarna vision of divine harmony. The mandrake, with its fragrant fruit and mysterious, human-shaped root, was an emblem of love, vitality, and rejuvenation. In Ancient Egyptian art it appears in the hands of lovers, musicians, and gods, a charm for passion and renewal. Paired here with the lotus, which opened with the dawn as the sun rose from the Nile, the necklace becomes a garland of life’s sweetness and rebirth’s eternal promise.
Once shimmering on a chest or within a tomb, its hues still whisper of Akhenaten’s world; where colour was theology, and beauty itself a form of worship.
Mandrake
New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, c. 1421-1372 B.C.
Tomb of Nakht (TT52), Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Thebes
The Ancient Egyptians regarded the mandrake (insno) as a fruit of love and desire, delighting in its sweet perfume whilst never forgetting its darker, hallucinogenic powers. In poetry and art of the New Kingdom it was woven into the language of beauty and allure, its rounded form likened to the curves of the female body, its very image evoking the sensuality of the breast. From banquet walls to cosmetic spoons and the jewelled collars of the dead, the mandrake’s likeness blossomed across Ancient Egyptian art, a playful yet potent emblem of passion and vitality.
Preferring rocky, dry soils and seldom thriving in the marshy environment of Egypt, the mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) is not native to the Nile Valley itself, making its presence in Ancient Egyptian art and ritual all the more intriguing. The true mandrake grows naturally in the eastern Mediterranean and Levant; Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, and parts of Anatolia (Turkey).
Met Museum. 11.215.231
Summary:
Mandrake and Lotus Broad Collar
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, c. 1352–1336 B.C.
From Amarna, North Suburb, “beyond S.35.4”. British Museum. EA 59334
