Beketaten's Jewelry

Come see my beautiful jewelry. It's guaranteed to please your mate or yourself. Buy for that special occasion. My items come from a workshop with the best goldsmith, lapidary and cutter, bead maker and stone setter in the area. Some say the Middle Kingdom had the best jewelry, but they're wrong! I have amulets and pendants, anklets, armlets and bracelets, belts/girdles, diadems, wig and hair ornaments, earrings, finger rings, necklaces, which include stringed necklaces, and broad collars. I also have honorific jewelry, plenty of beads and samples of raw materials. I have the finest jewelry-makers, neshby, who shape stone into inlays, and the finest bead-makers, iru weshbet, and bead collar stringers, seti nub.

Amulets (wedjau) and Pendants - these come with or without necklaces

Most amulets can come in metal, wood, faience, terracotta, or stone. Can wear as a pendant.
Scarabs, a favorite - for good luck and protection - Comes in stone, wood, metal, schist, steatie. In several sizes.
Eyes of Horus - for good luck and protection
Ankhs - for life
Djed columns, on cord or necklace- for stability - Comes in glazed stone, faience, gold, gilded wood, or lapis lazuli
Lion - (17th dynasty)
Fly amulets - of gold and ivory (NK Egypt, MK Nubia)
Fish amulets - nekhnu - in hollow gold, silver, electrum, or with inlay work. Or flat green stone with inlay. For protection against drowning.
Bull mosaic pendant - influenced by exotic Keftiu (MK)

Non-amuletic pendants

Not so popular, but I have a few.
Cockleshell-shaped with double loop-in-loop gold chain
Five-pointed star in center

Anklets - Menefret

Amethyst bead (MK)
Ivory

Armlets and Bracelets - Menefret For the Arms (net awy)

- or Iryt Awy ("appurtances of the arms")

Ivory
Hinged (solid and heavy, but the new fashion! Wear them in pairs on your upper arm.)
Inlaid heraldic armlet (NK)
Rigid bangles
Flexible wristlets
Silver inlaid with butterfly designs (4th dyn)
Gold beads
Lapis Lazuli and hollow gold balls, turquoise beads and gold triple ring-bead spacers
'Auau bracelet (new in NK!). Also called awaw.
    Hollow sheet-gold (18th dynasty)
    Gold awaw with rope-braid wire (18th dynasty)
    Gold awaw with double rope-braid wire (18th dynasty)
Heraldic armlet - made to order
Rigid hinged bracelet of 2 interlocking semi-cirular gold bands (NK)
Mesketu bracelets (new to NK). Convex profile.

Belts/girdles

Beaded belt with gold bucklet with person's name (12th dyn)

Diadems, Wig and Hair Ornaments

Open-work diadem inlaid with precious stones (MK)
Gold wig ornaments shaped into flowers (12th dyn)

Earrings (New in NK!)

(In Nubia by MK times)

Said to come far from the East originally, earrings (and collar necklaces) are the fashion accessory of our time.
Ivory
Stones
Glass
Silver wire

Finger rings

Ivory
Gold with lapis lazuli bezel
Stirrup-shaped signet rings - in gold or silver (NK)
Scarab rings - a favorite! I have scarabs of :
    turquoise, lapis lazuli, cornelian, and green stone
    lapis lazuli, turquoise, amethyst and glazed composition
    etc.

Necklaces

Stringed Necklaces

Wear a string of beads over a broad collar, or by itself.

Fine chain of looped 6-ply wire (NK)
Chokers - gold and faience discs
Bead necklace, various, amulet is extra - when you want to look like a woman from the Old Kingdom
Gold and lapis lazuli cylinders
Gold and cornelian beads
Silver and green quartz, spherical beads
Hollow gold spheroids
Blue-green glazed balls
Barrels and cylinders of cornelian, moss agate, milky quartz, black and white porphyry, green glazed steatite.
Double lapis lazuli beads with 2 gold spheres in center of each string

Pectorals - Wedja

Often glazed blue or blue-green, for all classes (NK)

Key-hole design with trapezoidal pendant and broad bands of gold beads
Openwork cloisonne
Inlaid with cornelian, lapis lazuli and turquoise, with falcons topped by sun-discs standing on a patterned bar/ocean. Gold balls and drop beads of gold, cornelian, and turquioise.
Openwork gold pectoral with cloisons inlaid with lapis lazuli, cornelian, and turquoise. With double crown. Gold ball beads, and long drops of turquoise, lapis lazuli, cornelian, and gold.
Inlays of cornelian, lapis lazuli, and turqoise.
etc.

Broad collars - Wesekh, Weskhet, Usekh

A must for all classes now! (Only for upper classes in the Old Kingdom, you know). Cylinders of graded sizes, with or without outermost row of pendants or outermost two rows of beads alternating with leaf-shaped pendants. If made of stone beads, includes counterpoise (worn between the shoulder-blades) to balance the weight.

Various colorful gemstones set in gold - the favorite
Various gemstones set in electrum and even silver are also available
Faience, turquoise and gold leaf (12th dyn)
Broad collar with falcon terminals (12th dyn)
Gold, turqouise, and lapis lazuli beads with outermost row of gold drops, menkhet counterpoise of gold and cornelian (12th dynasty)
Six rows of cornelian and feldspar cylinders alternating with rows of small gold beads. Gold falcon-headed terminals. Outermost row is gold drops with cornelian,
feldspar, and past inlay. Matching counterpoise (1800 BC).
Openwork effect. Rows of gold, nefer-signs (half inlaid, half plain). Outermost row of palmette inlaid pendants. Gold, inlaid lotus-head terminals. Lotus-head
counterpoise.

Floral collar (New in the New Kingdom)

Made of glazed composition, light, so don't need a counterpoise in your necklace, and cheap to produce, so a perfect gift for your many friends. Popular in the late 18th dynasty. Flowers can be:
    Red and mauve poppy petals, red or blue grape bunches, blue or yellow and white daisies, various colored cornflowers, lotus-buds, thistles, jasmine blossoms,
     yellow and blue mandrake fruit, green date-palm leaves.

    Lotus-headed terminals, 3 rows of pendants between discs of red, blue, mauve and yellow, representing yellow and blue mandrake fruit,
    green date-palm leaves, yellow, white, and mauve lotus-petals (18th dynasty).

Honorific Jewelry

I have a few of these. They're given for more than valor in war now, you know. If you are in a position to do so, honor any civil servant for that well done job.

Shebyu collar (New in the New Kingdom)
shebyu

    three rows or gold discs, trapezoidal clasp
    four rows of small gold discs
    five rows of gold rings, rectangular inlaid clasp, 14 loop-in-loop chains hanging from clasp
    six rows of gold rings, square inlaid clasp, 10 loop-in-loop gold chains hanging from clasp
    eleven rows of large gold beads, inlaid, gold spacers. 5 loop-in-loop gold chains from lower edge.

Awaw bangles (pair) - Square-shaped.
Mesketu bangle (single) - Convex profile (bulges in the middle), between projecting rims.

Beads

Materials

Bone
Ivory -hippopotamus or elephant
Carnelian (huge favorite)
Turquoise (huge favorite)
Green feldspar (cheaper than turquoise)
Lapis lazuli (huge favorite)
Faience (cheaper than lapis lazuli)
Jasper
Garnet
Amethyst (all other gemstones except for amethyst are also available for inlay work)
Chalcedony
Colored glass
Artificial: calicite and rock crystal backed with colored cement
You want shell beads? Why? We've made beads easily for thousands of years now, you know.

Beads

Shapes

Discs
Cylinders
Barrels
Lenticular
Tabular
Conical
Oblate
Faceted

Sample Materials

Alabaster - White opaque calcite.

Amethyst - Translucent quartz.

Carnelian - A beautiful deep red. Pebbles are picked up in the Eastern Desert. Also from Nubia. Highly prized and good for amulets and jewelry.

Copper - Hemt or baa en pet - From the Wadi Maghara in the Sinai. For beads, bangles, and finger rings. Copper and faience jewelry is great for those who
have little to trade with.

Electrum - Tcham - A mix of gold and silver.

Faience - Tjehenet - A great bargain. A cheap substitute for turquoise or malachite, but still beautiful. Made of the best quartz or crystal and put through a special process. I have blue, green, or greenish blue. I also have some in violet, white, yellow, red, and black, if desired. Good for all jewelry, especially for beads and amulets.

Gold - Nub, nub nefer - Favored by all. Doesn't tarnish or decay, looks like the sun. My gold comes from the best goldsmith in the area. I have many grades, including nub nefer, the very best grade. Mined from Buhen and Kerma in Nubia, and also at Wadi Alaki, Wadi Mish. My goldsmith knows how to emboss, engrave, filigree, and inlay gold. He can also make gold wire and gold leaf. Don't worry, we have gold for everything: amulets, pendants, diadems, pectorals, bangles, earrings, finger rings, anklets, torques, bracelets, and girdles.

Lapis lazuli - Khesbedj - Good for scarabs and amulets. I have opaque, dark, or greenish blue. I even have some with gold flecks. For this beautiful stone, we trade with the Arab camel drivers. They say it comes from some place called Afghanistan.

Quartz - Mtlky. Opaque and white.

Silver - Hedj - Our ancestors called it nub hedj, or but we just call it hedj now. Either way, it's quite beautiful.

Turquoise - A beautiful blue-green. Mined in the Sinai. Also in pale sky-blue.

Pick up this graphic if you've "bought jewelry" here.

scarab line

My Fine Sources

Andrews, Carol. (1990). Ancient Egyptian Jewelry. New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc., Publishers.

Andrews, Mark. (1999-2003). Tour Egypt: The Tomb of Ramesses II's Sons, Part II. Available at: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/kv52.htm

Bunson, Margaret. (1991). A Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press.

David, Rosalie. (1998). Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press.

NileStone. (2003). Egyptian Jewelry. Available at: http://www.nilestone.com/jewelry-history.htm

Schlesinger, Marissa R. (1996). Egyptian Jewlery of the Second Intermediate Period and the Early New Kingdom: A Study of Form and Motif. Available at: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~schlesin/diss.html

Shaw, Ian, and Paul Nicholson. (1995, 2003). The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. New York: Harry N Abrams, Inc.

St. Petersburg Times. (1999). Egypt: Daily Life. Available at: http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/EgyptCredit.4.2.html

St. Petersburg Times. (1999). Treasury. Available at: http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/Galleries/Galleries.9.html

State Information Service - Egypt. Egyptian Women: Amuletic Jewellry, Awards, and Insignia. Available at: http://www.sis.gov.eg/women/fashion/html/anc7.htm

State Information Service - Egypt. Egyptian Women: Collars to girdles: Adorning the Body. Available at: http://www.sis.gov.eg/women/fashion/html/anc5.html

What Life was Like on the Banks of the Nile: Egypt 3050-30 B.C. (1996). Eds. Time-Life Books. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life.

All but the broad collar, floral collar, shebyu, ring, and bead are from Neferchichi
Neferchichi graphic