|
Egyptian jewelry history.
The ancient Egyptians were familiar with most of the processes
of ornamenting metal that are still employed today. They
produced skillfully chased, engraved, soldered, repoussé, and
inlaid jewelry. They commonly worked in gold and silver and
inlaid these metals with semiprecious stones such as carnelian,
jasper, amethyst, turquoise, and lapis lazuli and with enamel
and glass. Their jewelry included diadems; wide bead necklaces
or collars; square pectorals; hoop, hinged, or bead bracelets;
and rings. Many Egyptians wore two bracelets on each arm, one on
the wrist and one above the elbow. An especially popular
ornament was the signet ring. Jewelry motifs—the scarab
(beetle), lotus, falcon, serpent, and eye, for example—were
derived from religious symbols. Vast quantities of jewelry have
been found in tombs. Especially notable are ornaments from the
tomb of Tutankhamun (reigned 1333-1323 BCbc), of the 18th
Dynasty, now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
|
