ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Floral Broad Collar (reconstructed)

AAT Object Form/Functionbroad collars

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodNew Kingdom

Date1539-1077 BCE

MediumFaience, modern beads and stringing

Credit LineGift of Yvonne Markowitz

Dimensions17 11/16 x 3 1/8 in. (44.9 x 7.9 cm)

Object number2001.009.001

Label TextApart from serving as items of adornment, jewelry had powerful amuletic properties for both the living and the dead. The invention of polychrome faience with a wide variety of subtle hues in the late Eighteenth Dynasty allowed the production of collars imitating garlands of fruit and flowers. Such ornaments made from vegetal material sewn onto papyrus backing were an important part of the funerary ceremony and were known as wah-collars.

These collars are represented on coffins as well as on other funerary offerings, and actual examples made of flower petals, fruit and plant material, or faience simulations were included in the tomb and could be placed on the mummy. The symbolism extended beyond the collar itself to the various elements that composed it. The blue lotus flower terminals and pendant petals on this example symbolized rebirth, and the mandrake fruits and palm leaves, fertility.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara, "The New Galleries of Egyptian and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 12 (September/October 2001), 9-16.

Status

On view

Collections