This collection of stringed blue faïence star amulets was found at el-Lisht, the funerary site of Middle Kingdom royal and elite burials. The region was originally excavated by the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero in 1882. The stringed star amulets were discovered in 1920-22, during the MMA excavations taking place at the time. They could date...
Upon death, people who were thought to have lived moral lives were reborn in the afterlife as a form of the god Osiris. This Ptolemaic gold ring is inscribed with the title “Osiris,” followed by the owner’s names and titles, attesting to his faith that he would become one with the god after death. Gold...
“The sumptuousness and grandeur of Nubian gold jewelry analyzed and illustrated for the first time. The fabled land of Nubia, whose very name means ‘gold,’ was famous in ancient times for its supplies of precious metal, exotic material, and intricate craftsmanship. Many of the adornments made in Nubia are masterpieces of the jeweler’s art—marvels of...
This fish pendant represents a Synodontis Batensoda, more commonly known as the Nile catfish, a species of fish named for its black belly. Often worn at the end of a plait of hair, amulets like this one were used by children and young women to protect against drowning. This fine amulet is made of gold...
Brooch featuring an ancient scarab in a modern winged mount, scarab is ancient Egyptian, (scarab). New Kingdom, ca. 1539-1077 BC; (gold mount) early 1900s, glazed steatite and gold (modern), Mrs. Kingsmill Marrs Collection, Worcester Art Museum, 1926.86 One of the most popular motifs among revivalist jewelers was the scarab. These small beetles were powerful amulets...
This bangle dates from the Middle Kingdom Period, c.2055-1650 B.C. and was found in Egypt, exact location unknown. It is made from a concoction of beaten, cast and soldered gold, with golden and silver amulets of Ancient Egyptian religious iconography such as, the Wadjet Eye and Djed Pillar, alongside animals such as a hare and...
This group of objects was found in a plundered chamber in Tomb MMA 840, excavated by Herbert Eustis Winlock (1884-1950), an archeologist who worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reached by a shaft in the portico of a rock-cut tomb in the Asasif section of the Theban necropolis. Among the finds were parts of...
Wrapped together in a package, placed above the right wrist of the mummy of Tutankhamun, were five rings, three of which are illustrated here. (Top to bottom) (a) Particular interest attaches to the material of this ring. It is a green translucent stone, which Carter thought was chalcedony. However, scientific tests carried out by Alfred...
These two unique two gold rings are decorated with lotus flowers. The blossoms are made from lapis lazuli and carnelian set into gold cloisons. One ring of this pair has a slender hoop attached to a lentoid bezel on which opposing lotus blossoms with petals of alternating dark and light blue glass are cut and...
“This brilliant blue scarab is carved out of lapis lazuli. Scarabs first become incorporated into finger rings in the Middle Kingdom (1980-1630 BC).” (Jennifer Wegner, label text, “Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt”) The Egyptians used amulets shaped like scarab beetles as seals, piercing the scarab longitudinally to allow it to be strung...
