Jewellery of a young Egyptian girl: Middle Kingdom goldwork from Haraga tomb 72
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Published
Sep 15, 2021
Abstract
Excavation of an intact burial at Haraga, Egypt (12th Dynasty) revealed the unusual presence of several gold catfish and tilapia pendants and gold bead necklaces, now in the collection of National Museums Scotland (NMS). Analysis of the pendants and gold beads by XRF and PIXE/PIGE has shown that the majority were made from silver-rich electrum with quantities of silver between 20wt% and 40wt%. Only the most skilfully crafted fish pendant was made with a high-purity gold alloy containing less than 7wt% silver. The gold beads, which were made by rolling foils of different thicknesses on a lime plaster core, are highly degraded. FEG-SEM observation of one corroded fragment revealed a porous texture of the surface corresponding to a failed annealing that caused an increase of the corrosion rate. The surface of the beads has a red coloration caused by the formation of gold-silver-sulphur compounds, characteristic of atmospheric corrosion of gold-based alloys.
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References
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Aldred C 1971, Jewels of the pharaohs: Egyptian jewellery of the Dynastic Period (London).
Andrews C A R 1981, Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum VI. Jewellery I: from the earliest times to the Seventeenth Dynasty (London).
Andrews C 1990, Ancient Egyptian jewellery (London).
Andrews C 1994, Amulets of ancient Egypt (London).
Beck H C 1928, ‘Report on Qau and Badari beads’, in G Brunton, Qau and Badari II, (London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt 45), 22–25.
Blackman A M 1953, The rock tombs of Meir VI (London: Archaeological Survey of Egypt 29).
Bourriau J 1988, Pharaohs and mortals: Egyptian art in the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge).
Brewer D J and Friedman R F 1989, Fish and fishing in ancient Egypt (Warminster: The Natural History of Egypt 2).
Engelbach R and Gunn B 1923, Harageh (London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt 28).
Fischer H G 1977, ‘Some iconographic and literary comparisons’ in J Assmann, E Feucht, R Grieshammer (eds), Fragen an die altägyptische Literatur: Studien zum Gedenken an Eberhard Otto (Wiesbaden), 155–170.
Frantz J H and Schorsch D 1990, ‘Egyptian red gold’, Archeomaterials 4, 133–152.
Gale N H and Stos-Gale Z A 1981, ‘Ancient Egyptian silver’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 67, 103–115.
Garstang J 1901, El Arábah (London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt 6).
Grajetzki W 2013, Tomb treasures of the late Middle Kingdom: the archaeology of female burials (Philadelphia).
Guerra M F 2004, ‘Fingerprinting ancient gold with proton beams of different energy’, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 226, 185–198.
Guerra M F and Tissot I 2013, ‘The role of nuclear microprobes in the study of technology, provenance and corrosion of cultural heritage: the case of gold and silver items’, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 306, 227–231.
Klemm R and Klemm D 2013, Gold and gold mining in ancient Egypt and Nubia: geoarchaeology of the ancient gold mining sites in the Egyptian and Sudanese eastern deserts (Berlin–Heidelberg).
Lucas A and Harris J R 1962, Ancient Egyptian materials and industries (London).
McDonald A S and Sistare G H 1978, ‘The metallurgy of some carat gold jewellery alloys, Part I – coloured gold alloys’, Gold Bulletin 11, 128–131.
Meeks N D and Tite M S 1980, ‘The analysis of platinum-group element inclusions in gold antiquities’, Journal of Archaeological Science 7, 267–275.
Miniaci G, La Niece S, Guerra M F and Hacke M 2013, ‘Analytical study of the first royal Egyptian heart-scarab, attributed to a Seventeenth Dynasty king, Sobekemsaf’, British Museum Technical Research Bulletin 7, 53–60.
Ogden J 1976, ‘The so-called “platinum” inclusions in Egyptian goldwork’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 62, 138–144.
Ogden J 2000, ‘Metals’, in P Nicholson and I Shaw (eds), Ancient Egyptian materials and technology (Cambridge), 148–175.
Oppenheim A, Arnold Do, Arnold Di and Yamamoto K 2015, Ancient Egypt transformed: The Middle Kingdom (New York).
Petrie W M F 1910, The arts and crafts of ancient Egypt (London and Edinburgh).
Petrie W M F 1901, Diospolis Parva: the cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu (London: Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund 20).
Rapson W 1990, ‘Tarnish resistance, corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of gold alloys’, Gold Bulletin 23(4), 125–133.
Rapson W 1996, ‘The metallurgy of the coloured carat gold alloys’, Gold Bulletin 29, 61–69.
Riabkina M, Gal-Or L, Fishman Y and Iram G 1984, ‘Grain-refined recrystallized 14-carat gold alloy’, Gold Bulletin 17(2), 62–69.
Richards J 2005, Society and death in ancient Egypt: mortuary landscapes of the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge).
Rifai M M and El Hadidi N M N 2010, ‘Investigation and analysis of three gilded wood samples from the tomb of Tutankhamun’, in J Dawson, C Rozeik and M M Wright (eds), Decorated surfaces on ancient Egyptian objects: technology, deterioration and conservation (London), 16–24.
Silverman D P 1997, Searching for ancient Egypt: art, architecture, and artifacts from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Ithaca, NY).
Tissot I, Tissot M, Manso M, Alves L, Barreiros M A, Marcelo T, Carvalho M L, Corregidor V and Guerra M F 2013, ‘The earrings of Pancas treasure: analytical study by X-ray based techniques – a first approach’, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 306, 236–240.
Tissot I, Troalen L G, Manso M, Ponting M, Radtke M, Reinholz U, Barreiros M A, Shaw I, Carvalho M L and Guerra M F 2015, ‘A multi-analytical approach to gold in ancient Egypt: studies on provenance and corrosion’, Spectrochimica Acta Part B 108, 75–82.
Troalen L, Guerra M F, Tate J and Manley W P 2009, ‘Technological study of gold jewellery pieces dated from Middle Kingdom to New Kingdom in Egypt’, ArcheoSciences 33, 111–119.
Troalen L G, Tate J and Guerra M F 2014, ‘Goldwork in ancient Egypt: workshop practices at Qurneh in the 2nd Intermediate Period’, Journal of Archaeological Science 50, 219–226.
Troalen L and Guerra M F 2016, ‘Gold from the tomb of Scribe Beri: a comparative analytical approach to the New Kingdom gold grave goods from Riqqa (Egypt)’ Applied Physics A 122(3), 209–220.
Vernier É 1907–1927, Bijoux et orfèvreries. Fascicule I–IV. Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du musée du Caire (Cairo).
Winlock H E 1934, The Treasure of El-Lahun (New York).
How to Cite
Jewellery of a young Egyptian girl: Middle Kingdom goldwork from Haraga tomb 72. (2021). Historical Metallurgy, 49(2), 75-86. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/64
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Jewellery of a young Egyptian girl: Middle Kingdom goldwork from Haraga tomb 72. (2021). Historical Metallurgy, 49(2), 75-86. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/64