Faience Collar (Acc. 6620)

This is a reconstructed collar of faience beads, with four rows of cylinder beads, arranged vertically. Each row is bordered by a horizontal row of cylinder beads. At the bottom are 13 pendants and a loop border made up of more cylinder beads. There is a semi-circular terminal at each end of the collar.

The beads are original and date from the First Intermediate Period (2125-1975 BC). They were discovered at the site of Sidmat, Middle Egypt and were donated to the Manchester Museum by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt (1920-1921).

Faience

Faience was a very versatile material and extremely well suited to making small items such as elements of jewellery. The material, sometimes termed 'glazed composition' from the technique used, is a non-pottery ceramic that was produced by heating crushed quartz and natron, with a pigment, until they fused. Pottery moulds were used to make small objects, such as necklace elements and amulets.

Jewellery in ancient Egypt

Ornamentation in is more than a matter of aesthetics. The choice of jewellery to be adorned with is a statement about wealth, social status, and/or religious beliefs. Difference within the social hierarchy, among other means, is expressed by the exquisiteness of an individual's adornments.

Throughout history, people have had a propensity to explain their worldly successes as the result of being morally superior, and earning divine favour by pleasing the gods. Beauty has, in the Egyptian culture, been equated with goodness; in Egyptian nefer ('nfr') was used for both 'good' and 'beautiful'. Thus, wearing ornaments was a way to improve one's attractiveness in the eyes of both people and the gods.