Egyptian jewelry
The ancient Egyptians were brilliant innovators
in the creation of Egyptian jewelry. The ancient Egyptians loved Egyptian
ornamentation; Egyptian jewelry was designed, crafted and worn with great care
and with full respect of the Egyptian art of jewelry making. In ancient Egypt,
Fine jewelry was valued not only for beauty but also for the magical and
spiritual protection it provided, they didn't make a distinction between
amulets, Egyptian cartouche and Egyptian jewelry. Minerals and metals were
identified with specific deities as well as with specific spiritual and
therapeutic values Egyptian jewelry.
Egyptian Jewelry has played various roles in ancient Egypt. In addition to man's
natural attraction to beautiful items, Egyptian jewelry had a religious and
magical significance in the Egypt ancient world by protecting the wearer from
evil.
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Ancient Egyptians and the
fine Egyptian jewelry
Ancient Egyptians began making
their jewelry during the Badari and Naqada eras from simple natural materials;
for example, plant branches, shells, beads, solid stones or bones. These were
arranged in threads of flax or cow hair. To give these stones some brilliance
and to have the fine Egyptian jewelry way of appearance, Egyptians began
painting them with glass substances. Since the era of the First Dynasty, ancient
Egyptians were skilled in making Egyptian jewelry from solid semiprecious stones
and different metals such as gold and silver what make them specialized in the
making of Egyptian gold jewelry and Egyptian silver jewelry as well. The art of
gold smiting and gold Egyptian jewelry making reached its peak in the Middle
Kingdom, when Egyptians mastered the technical methods and accuracy in making
pieces of fine Egyptian jewelry. During the New Kingdom, gold smiting flourished
in an unprecedented way because of regular missions to the Eastern Desert and
Nubia to extract metals. These substances were processed and inlaid with all
sorts of semiprecious stones found in Egypt; for example, gold, turquoise,
agate, and silver.
Egyptian Jewelry was used in daily life throughout the Pharaonic era until the
Roman times. Ancient Egyptians were keen to keep a good number of Egyptian
jewelry pieces in the tombs; these were placed on the body of the deceased. A
large number of such fine jewelry was found in tombs; for example, wreaths,
crowns, or hair bands. On the head or wig, they fixed different types of
ornaments, such as small roses, golden bands, and some simple bands of Egyptian
jewelry. There were also different types of belts, including waist belts and
belts with hanging vertical straps ornamented with colored beads. Other types of
jewelry included earrings, bracelets, anklets, rings, and necklaces.
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Egyptian jewelry unique
pieces
A unique piece of Egyptian jewelry
that never appeared in other cultures was the vest, which was worn around the
chest. It was usually made of gold or of gold-plated metal. Even when it was
made of a cheap material, it was painted yellow to give a golden impression.
Wearing a golden vest is still an existing folklore practice in the Egyptian
countryside, though it has a different name, the Kirdan. Every village girl
dreams of wearing a golden one to boast of.
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Egyptian jewelry during
the religion history of Egypt
Ornaments and jewelry were not
restricted to women. Men also used jewelry until the Roman era in Egypt.
However, since the advent of Christianity in Egypt, with many people converting
to that new religion, ornaments and extravagant luxury began to be less common
and were replaced by manifestations of piety, religiousness, and righteousness.
Most of Egyptian jewelry was made of cheaper materials bearing Christian
symbols, such as crosses, pigeons, and the Egyptian Ankh sign, instead of the
amulets that were used before. After the arrival of Islam in Egypt, men in
particular were prohibited from wearing gold jewelry, but continued to use
Egyptian jewelry made of other materials, such as Egyptian silver jewelry.
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Egyptian Cartouche
The Egyptian Cartouche was worn
only by the Pharaohs or Kings of Egypt. The Pharaoh was considered a living God
and his Cartouche was his insignia. The "Magical Oval" in which the
Pharaoh's first name was written was intended to protect him from evil spirits
both while he lived and in the afterworld when entombed.
Over the past 5000 years the Egyptian Cartouche has become a universal symbol of
long life, good luck and protection from any evil; Now you can acquire this
ancient pendent handmade in Egypt from pure 18 Karat Egyptian gold cartouche
with your name spelled out in the same way as King Tut, Ramses, Queen Nefertiti
did.
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Egyptian
jewelry store
Our Egyptian jewelry store
contains a fabulous collection of Egyptian jewelry collections, on the top of
these collections comes Egyptian gold jewelry collection containing, Egyptian
gold cartouche, Egyptian gold pendant, Egyptian gold earrings, Egyptian gold
rings, Egyptian gold bracelets, Egyptian gold necklaces, beside our special
collection of Egyptian silver jewelry containing, Egyptian silver cartouche,
Egyptian silver pendant, Egyptian silver earrings, Egyptian silver rings,
Egyptian silver bracelets, and Egyptian silver necklaces.
All of these Egyptian jewelry collections placed in out Egyptian jewelry store
will be shipped directly to you from Egypt.
All of our Egyptian jewelry collections are handmade in Egypt by skilled
craftsmen and designers. Egypt7000 offers the finest Egyptian jewelry collection
on the web. This is the same jewelry that made women feel beautiful from the
times of the pharaohs till this day. The same designs, the same primitive
handcraft and the same eastern touch.
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Egyptian history affects
on the art of making Egyptian jewelry
All of our Egyptian jewelry
collection are based on the Egyptian historical characters and symbols like
Akhenaton, nefertari,... In the following part we give a brief description about
the most famous Egyptian characters/symbols that affects the art of making
Egyptian Jewelry:
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Our special Egyptian
jewelry collections - Nefertiti:
Nefertiti was the Wife of Akhenaten during the Eighteenth Dynasty. She bore
Akhenaten 6 daughters and no sons, and shared a near co-rulership with the
king. Fifteen years after her appointment to the position of Queen of
Memphis, Nefertiti mysteriously disappeared. Egyptologists have assumed that
this was either due to banishment or her death. However, little evidence
suggests that she actually died. Similarly, speculation exists as to whether
she was the obscure pharaoh Nefernefuaten, our Egyptian jewelry collection
include 18K Egyptian gold pendant of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. As well
as a beautiful Egyptian gold earring.
Our Egyptian silver jewelry contains queen Nefertiti Egyptian silver
pendant, queen Nefertiti Egyptian silver earrings, queen Nefertiti Egyptian
silver rings.
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Our special Egyptian
jewelry collections - Queen Cleopatra:
Cleopatra VII was born in 69 BC in Alexandria, which was then the capital of
Egypt. She was the last pharaoh of Egypt. After her death Egypt became a
Roman province.
Cleopatra was 17 or 18 when she became the queen of Egypt. She was far from
beautiful, despite her glamorous image today. She is depicted on ancient
coins with a long hooked nose and masculine features. Yet she was clearly a
very seductive woman. She had an enchantingly musical voice and exuded
charisma. She was also highly intelligent. She spoke nine languages (she was
the first Ptolemy pharaoh who could actually speak Egyptian!) and proved to
be a shrewd politician.
Our Egyptian gold jewelry collection for Queen Cleopatra include Queen
Cleopatra Egyptian gold pendant, Queen Cleopatra Egyptian gold earrings,
Queen Cleopatra Egyptian gold rings, beside our special Egyptian jewelry
collection for queen Cleopatra including Queen Cleopatra Egyptian silver
pendant, Queen Cleopatra Egyptian silver earrings, Queen Cleopatra Egyptian
silver rings.
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Our special Egyptian
jewelry collections - Scarab:
Egyptian Jewelry in the form of scarab gold/silver pendants, scarab
gold/silver bracelets, and scarab gold/silver necklaces prominently featured
scarabs of various sizes and were all believed to possess amulet properties.
Although scarabs are known from the earliest periods, it is in the 12th
dynasty that their use as seals became common. The great majority of the
thousands of scarab seals were quite small, generally measuring around
three-quarters of an inch long by half-an-inch wide and about a quarter of
an inch high. The name of a particular person, king, or official title was
inscribed on their flat bases to ensure protective powers would be given to
the owner and to the owner's property. Interestingly, some scarabs with
royal names were worn after the king was deceased, in the saintly sense,
similar to the holy medals of Christian saints. In all probability, no
matter what their category, scarabs represented sacred emblems of Egyptian
religious belief.
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Our special Egyptian
jewelry collections - Ankh:
Egyptian Ankh pendant, symbol of life.. The ankh is a very old symbol, the
precise meaning of which has been lost in time but dates back to at least
the time of the ancient Egyptians where the word meant "to live"
or "life". The Egyptian empire waned and died but the power of the
ankh symbol lived on and became absorbed into other imagery including early
Christian. The ankh is associated with the hieroglyph for "magical
protection" ("sa"). It is believed that in ancient Egypt the
ankh was symbolic of the sunrise, with the loop representing the Sun rising
above the horizon, which is represented by the crossbar. The vertical
section below the crossbar would then be the path of the sun. In carvings on
ancient tombs, the gods of Egypt are often depicted as carrying ankh signs.
We find Anqet, Ptah, Satet, Sobek, Tefnut, Osiris, Ra, Isis, Hathor, Anibus
and many other gods often holding the ankh sign, along with a scepter, and
in various tomb and temple reliefs, placing it in front of the king's face
to symbolize the breath of eternal life. During the Amarna period, the ankh
sign was depicted being offered to Akhenaten and Nefertiti by the hands at
the end of the rays descending from the sun disk, Aten. Therefore, the ankh
sign is not only a symbol of worldly life, but of life in the netherworld.
Therefore, we also find the dead being referred to as ankhu, and a term for
a sarcophagus was neb-ankh, meaning possessor of life.
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