Egyptian Jewellery
Egyptian jewellery appears particularly precious and somewhat mysterious due to its typical symbols, ornaments, valuable materials, and history. That is why Egyptian rings, pendants and amulets are popular to this day. Here, at ars mundi, you can find a diverse selection, including many pieces featuring mythological symbols such as necklaces bearing the Horus falcon, pendants in the shape of the Ankh cross or various scarab jewellery such as Tutankhamun's bangle or necklaces by Petra Waszak. All jewellery pieces are made of high-quality materials such as silver and precious stones, authentically reproducing the motifs.
Ancient Egypt, from around 3100 BC onwards, is considered one of the first advanced civilisations with great progress and achievements in economy, politics, science, art, and culture. Jewellery has always been extremely popular in the country where the Nile flows and fulfils various functions in people's lives. Throughout society, people wore jewellery for its decorative qualities. But it often also served as a gift, a burial offering, or even as forms of currency. However, the most important reason for wearing amulets, rings and necklaces was to carry motifs and symbols believed to be protective, helping or healing. A typical and particularly common motif in Egyptian jewellery is the scarab beetle, which symbolises life, resurrection, and creative power. Therefore, even today scarab pendants remain considered a lucky charm. The beetle was often used to represent the sun god Ra because of its great symbolic power. His daughter Bastet was also worshipped as a goddess and symbolically represented as a cat or woman with a cat's head. She was considered the protector of pregnant women and the deity of love, sexuality, fertility, joy, festivities, dance, and music. People expected protection from evil and darkness from the Bastet cat. In Egyptian mythology, the king god Horus adopted the form of an animal as a falcon. He symbolised life, healing, light, power, and perfection and was considered the protector of children. If not represented by the falcon, he was symbolized by the highly abstracted Eye of Horus. The Ankh sign, which is composed of a loop and a cross, was also widespread. It is supposed to show the rising sun on the horizon and was a symbol of life and life after death for the Ancient Egyptians.
The processes used to make jewellery in Ancient Egypt were at an extremely high technical level at that time. There were specialised jewellery workshops where skilled artisans crafted jewellery using metalworking methods known today, such as casting or soldering. Various materials were used, such as gold, silver, copper, bronze, glass, and many semi-precious stones such as amethyst, malachite or lapis lazuli as well as Egyptian faience, an early form of pottery made of quartz sand. The high level of technological advancement also made it possible for Egyptian jewellery of this time to last for many millennia.