Thousands of years after Egypt emerged, they remain a top influencer of many sectors in the world. This set of people have made advances in technology and has also greatly influenced style and design. Egyptians have more to offer the world than their famous pyramids; they also offer a stunning contribution of jewelry to the world like their cartouche necklaces. Egyptians were known to wear different jewelry on their body to either show status, show beauty, or simply as a form of personal protection.
Many ancient Egyptian pieces of jewelry are still in use today, and they have discovered many special stones that are being used to craft these unique Egyptian jewelry designs. Each gem or special stone in Egypt was unique and worn for various reasons; let’s check out some of the top Egyptian jewelry you can find out there.
Egyptian Cartouche
Egyptian cartouche is one of the unique ancient Egyptian jewelry out there; they come with hieroglyphic engravings of either your name or you’re beloved. This piece of jewelry was used by royalty back in ancient Egypt and was hand-crafted by the best Egyptian craftsmen. They have usually customized pieces and are a great choice to show affection to loved ones. Egyptian cartouche comes in different forms, and there are cartouche necklaces, bracelets, and rings. Its extensive collection of jewelry contains all you need, and they come in different pieces as you can opt for the pendants only instead of the cartouche necklaces.
Pectorals
These were another set of ancient Egyptian jewelry that usually hung down the wearer’s chest. This was mostly worn by the nobility and royalty. Most pectorals are unique in their designs and usually symbolic in their crafting. A perfect example of pectorals would be that of the famous King Tut, who wore a pectoral designed with a protective eye, beetles, vulture wings, cobras, and lilies. The design of the pectoral was meant to represent his power over Egypt. This ancient Egyptian jewelry was usually crafted to show off the bead maker’s skills as well as that of the goldsmith.
Heart Scarabs
Another type of ancient Egyptian jewelry was the Hear scarab; it falls into the amulets category and usually came in a heart-shaped design. This amulet got its name from the position it is placed on the body as it was usually placed over the heart of a person before their burial. Heart scarabs are believed to protect the heart from being separated from the body when it makes it to the afterlife. It supported ancient mythology that the heart bore memories of everyone’s action, and the dead were judged by a weighing of the heart after death.
Beaded Necklaces
Beaded necklaces are quite popular amongst ancient Egyptian jewelry and differ from cartouche necklaces in many ways. They were always made with different amulets integrated into them, and the beads usually differed in shapes and sizes. Egyptian bead necklaces were made from different materials like glass, minerals, clay, and even semi-precious stones. Beaded necklaces were worn for different reasons in Egypt, sometimes as a form of protection and other times as simply a show of beauty.
Collars
Another form of ancient Egyptian jewelry was collared, and they were usually crafted using hundreds of beads, various strands of gems, and many inlay work. Gold was a popular choice for Egyptian collars than silver because of its easy accessibility in Egypt; silver was rarer than gold in ancient Egypt. Artisans usually made use of glass beads to imitate gemstones in the crafting of the collar. Collars could be used as a form of adornment in real life or used for adorning the dead in Egypt.