Mummy Bead Net with Winged Scarab

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodThird Intermediate Period - Late Period

Date1076-332 BCE

MediumFaience, modern restringing

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions22 1/16 x 5 7/8 in., 1/16 in. (56 x 15 cm, 0.2 cm)

Object number2018.010.243

Label TextIn the Third Intermediate and Late Periods, bead nets were purely funerary and positioned on top of the mummy wrappings. Composed of faience beads, called tjehnet, meaning “dazzling” in ancient Egyptian, relates to luminosity and the sun. Their blue-green hues symbolized heaven and water, Nut as the “Mistress of the Sky” and Hathor as the “Lady of Turquoise.”

This bead net is composed of tubular turquoise, blue, and brown faience beads laid in a lattice pattern. Additional faience beads in hues of brown to light turquoise provide a frame. A winged scarab is sewn into the net. The winged scarab, composed of a beetle with bird wings, protected the heart, believed by the ancient Egyptians to be the seat of thought, memory, and emotion. The bead net’s material, color, and amulets played a protective and magical role in regenerating the deceased. The stringing of this bead net is a modern reconstruction using ancient faience beads and amulets.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesRenee Stein, et al., "Reconciling Restoration," in Life and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, ed. Melinda K. Hartwig (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), Figure 5.2.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 97.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Jean-François Mignon, Aix-en Provence, France, March 10, 1974. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1975-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

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