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 beauty to personal protection and health.
Types of Egyptian Jewelry
Both men and women wore jewelry in ancient Egypt including earrings, necklaces, collars, rings, bracelets, and hair ornaments. Many examples are depicted on carvings and tomb paintings, but since the paintings were often done for wealthy families, the jewelry depicted was elaborate and expensive or created by the artists to show the taste and beauty of the deceased.
Body Adornments
Egyptian clothing was simple and included kilts for men, loose gowns for women, and very little for children and slaves. The body was adorned with jewelry quite early in Egyptian history, as with this gemstone belt (shown below), from the Predynastic era.
Bracelets
Bracelets were armlets or cuff styles. Kings (Pharaohs) were famous for their extensive jewelry collections: Rameses III wore these armlets, which are now in the Cairo Museum. This gold, glass and semiprecious stone cuff bracelet is from the New Kingdon period and has inscriptions about Pharaoh Thutmose III.
Necklaces
Necklaces ranged from simple beads strung on linen thread, like this example, with a carved fly, and amethyst and garnet stones, to spectacular pieces like New Kingdom’s King Tut’s falcon pendant. These First Dynasty necklaces hint at the color and designs that were prevalent in early Egyptian culture.
Collars
Collars consisted of hundreds of beads, strands of gems, and inlay work. These gold sheet collars used glass beads to imitate gemstones. Gold was more prevalent than silver since Egyptians had more access to the sunny metal; silver was more precious than gold.
Collars and other jewelry could be used to adorn the deceased. The Broad Collar of Wah, shown below, is a type of collar that might be used for burial. The lack of a strong clasp signifies that it was placed on Wah’s mummified remains rather than worn in life. It is made from glazed ceramic beads and linen thread.
Rings
Rings (and earrings) came in gold, silver, inlaid, gems and glass. Sometimes they were carved with prayers to the gods or magic incantations for protection. This gold ring was from the Ptolemaic period (Greek period of the Cleopatras.) It was owned by a temple priest and shows the goddess Isis with her son, Horus.
Pectorals
Pectorals hung down over the wearer’s chest. This example from King Tut’s tomb (shown below) has the protective eye, scarab beetles, cobras, vulture/falcon wings, lilies and papyrus blooms, all which represent the king and his power over Egypt. This type of jewelry showed off the skill of the goldsmith and beadmaker, as in this example from the Middle Kingdom.
Pectorals were a type of jewelry commonly worn by the wealthier classes, and could be worn as a brooch or necklace laid across the chest. The pectoral below was part of a necklace from the reign of Senwosret II and was made from gold and expensive materials such as carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, garnet, and green feldspar.
