Necklace of Drum-Shaped Beads
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: Necklace of Drum-Shaped Beads, ca. 1514–1353 B.C.E.. Faience, Approximate length: 36 5/8 in. (93 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 14.629. (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 string of beads possibly used as jewelry or adornment.
The image depicts a string of small, uniformly shaped beads, possibly used as a necklace or decorative item. The beads appear to be arranged in a long, slightly curved string. The style and simplicity suggest it might have been used for ceremonial or everyday wear. The beads are evenly spaced and consistent in size, indicating careful crafting.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 14.629 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3110 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.