WorldWide

The broad, or wesekh, collar was the most popular item of jewelry in ancient Egypt, worn by kings and ordinary people alike. But few collars were so beautiful or intricate as this one, found in the tomb of Princess Neferuptah of the XIIth Dynasty (c.1991–1786 B.C.), at Hawara in Egypt’s Fayum region. This necklace, measuring nearly 13 inches across, consists of six strings of tubular beads (alternating rows of bluish-white feldspar and red cornelian, separated by smaller beads of gold), and a lower border of droplet-shaped pendants. Two falcon’s heads of hammered gold adorn the ends of the collar. […]