Types of Egyptian Jewelry
More than 5,000 years after emerging as a culture, the ancient Egyptians are still influencing style and design. Pyramids aside, their most stunning contributions might be their jewelry: gold, ceramic, and semi-precious stones mounted on elaborate necklaces, rings, earrings, and more. The Egyptians wore jewelry for many reasons, from marks of status and love of […]
Decoding Ancient Egyptian Musical Instruments
Egyptologists examining the wealth of ancient hieroglyphs bequeathed to us discovered ancient Egyptians developed a diverse range of musical instruments. Egyptian musicians could draw upon stringed instruments together with wind and percussion instruments. Most musical performances were also accompanied by hand clapping to keep rhythm while both men and women sang to accompany the music. Ancient Egyptians […]
The Role of Professional Musicians
Ancient Egyptians employed numerous professional musicians who performed on a range of occasions. Given Egyptian society was structured into different social strata, this inevitably implied some musicians were limited to performing for events in keeping with their professional strata. A musician enjoying high social status could perform during feats and religious ceremonies within the temple […]
Facts About Ancient Egyptian Jewellery
The earliest evidence of jewellery making in ancient Egypt dates to 4000 BC. Today, ancient Egyptian jewellery has gifted us with some of the rarest and most sublime examples of ancient craftsmanship discovered to date. Both men and women in ancient Egypt proved themselves to be great admirers of jewellery. They adorned themselves with a profusion of […]
Jewelry
The ancient Egyptians exhibited a love of ornament and personal decoration from earliest Predynastic times. Badarian burials often contained strings of beads made from glazed steatite, shell and ivory. Jewelry in gold, silver, copper and faience is also attested in the early Predynastic period; more varied materials were introduced in the centuries preceding the 1st Dynasty. By the Old Kingdom, the combination of carnelian, turquoise and lapis lazuli had been established for […]
Calligraphy
Egyptian writing remained a remarkably conservative system, and the preserve of a tiny literate minority, while the spoken language underwent considerable change. Egyptian stelas are decorated with finely carved hieroglyphs. The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age, around the 32nd century BC (Naqada III), with the first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dating to […]
Cosmetics
Use of makeup, especially around the eyes, was a characteristic feature of ancient Egyptian culture from Predynastic times. Kohl (eye-paint) was applied to protect the eyes, as well as for aesthetic reasons. It was usually made of galena, giving a silvery-black color; during the Old Kingdom, green eye-paint was also used, made from malachite. Egyptian women painted their lips and cheeks, […]
Art and Music
Gifted women actively participated in the weaving, grieving, and music organizations in Ancient Egypt. Moreover, being a professional in entertainment was another job that was occupied by women in Ancient Egypt (Hunt, 2009).Yet; there is no proof that they ever regulated male laborers, except the most senior imperial women. Hekenu and Iti […]
Painting
Not all Egyptian reliefs were painted, and less-prestigious works in tombs, temples and palaces were merely painted on a flat surface. Stone surfaces were prepared by whitewash, or if rough, a layer of coarse mud plaster, with a smoother gesso layer above; some finer limestones could take paint directly. Pigments were mostly mineral, chosen to withstand strong sunlight without fading. The […]
Significance of Number in Symbols
The combination of the symbols always had a specific meaning. Wilkinson writes, “One of the most important principles for understanding the numerical symbolism of Egyptian representational works is that of the extension of numbers” (138). A two-dimensional work of art, such as an image of a god or goddess, is often depicted in such a […]
