Single Strand Necklace with Bead and 5 Scarabs
Description
Object Label: Necklaces Most ancient Egyptians owned at least one necklace. The simplest examples were made of tiny beads of shell, bone, faience, metal, or glazed steatite. More complex versions had beads in the form of amulets, including uraeus-cobras, wedjat-eyes (the eye of the falcon-god Horus, symbolizing wholeness), scarabs (charms in the form of beetles), or images of gods such as Hathor. Individual beads as well as complete necklaces had significance. Beads reproducing fruits or flowers, such as the examples in this case, were believed to enhance fertility. Military officers presented fly necklaces to valiant soldiers to acknowledge their tenacity in battle. Caption: Pan Grave; Nubian. Single Strand Necklace with Bead and 5 Scarabs, ca. 1390–1292 B.C.E.. Faience, Overall Length: 12 5/8 in. (32 cm) (Largest Scarab): 3/16 x 3/8 x 1/2 in. (0.5 x 0.9 x 1.3 cm) (Smallest Scarab): 3/16 x 5/16 x 3/8 in. (0.4 x 0.8 x 1 cm) (Cowroid): 3/16 x 1/4 x 3/8 in. (0.4 x 0.6 x 0.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 15.498. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A necklace composed of turquoise-colored beads arranged in a circular pattern.
The necklace features a series of turquoise-colored, cylindrical and disc-shaped beads strung together in a circular formation. Some beads appear to be made of faience, while others might be different blue-green minerals. The craftsmanship suggests it may have been a decorative or personal adornment piece.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 15.498 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3126 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.