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Industry : Jewelry
Jewelry
Men and women loved to adorn themselves with jewelry, and fine examples have survived from all periods, although the Middle Kingdom probably represents the greatest age of this craft. Excavations have revealed several great royal treasures, as well as the jewelry of private individuals, and there was obviously a high level of technical skill. Other sources, such as tomb scenes and temple wall reliefs, provide further information about jewelry production.
USESThe
Egyptians adorned the gods’ statues, the dead, and the living with
jewelry, which was believed to confer certain benefits on the
wearer. Amulets (magical items of jewelry) were worn to protect the
owner against evil or hostile forces, and their shapes and forms
animals, hieroglyphs, images of gods, and special symbols were
believed to exert strong magical forces. The metals and stones used
in the jewelry were also believed to contain magical properties.
Although both the dead and the living were supplied with jewelry,
the funerary pieces were often more conservative and traditional in
design than pieces for the living. Jewelry also indicated status,
and kings marked important events in their reigns, such as marriage,
accession to the throne, and jubilee festivals, with the production
of special sets of jewelry. On some occasions, courtiers presented
the king with jewelry to mark a special occasion. Jewelry was also
presented to foreign powers and as gifts to favored courtiers, while
certain items were given to mark the appointment of royal officials.
Not only royalty and the upper classes enjoyed this display of
wealth; people of all ages and classes adorned themselves with
necklaces, bracelets, anklets, headdresses, belts, and rings.
Earrings were introduced into Egypt from Asia at the beginning of
the New Kingdom.
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PRODUCTION PROCESS
The same materials tended to be popular at all
periods. Gold was especially favored; first collected in the form of
granules in the alluvial sands and gravel, it was later extracted
from veins in the quartz rock. Electrum and silver were also used,
but gold, because it did not decay or tarnish and because it
reflected the color of the sun, always remained the most popular
metal. Goldsmithing was carried out in the capital city, major
towns, and also in temple workshops; at Memphis the Temple of Ptah
(the patron of craftsmen) was particularly famous for this work.
Gold mining was a state monopoly, and gold was also levied as a tax;
thus, it directly entered the state and temple workshops where it
was weighed and recorded by a scribe before the master craftsmen
received it. The first stage in production involved purification of
the gold: The ingots were placed in a crucible and heated over an
open fire. In early times, to increase the temperature, several men
stood around the fire and blew through reeds that were protected in
pottery sleeves. By the New Kingdom, however, a more elaborate
bellows, using a pair of goatskins attached to the reeds, had been
developed. Once the gold was molten, men used tongs to lift the
crucible off the fire and poured the gold into molds. Then, before
it was cold, the gold was hammered on an anvil to produce plates,
bars, strips, and gold wire. The introduction of the bellows and
blast furnace was a major advance since it now became possible to
provide very high temperatures that gave the workmen more control
over their metals. Other tools were very simple and included
polished pebbles to hammer the metals, possibly limestone and bronze
hammers, sandstone and quartzite stones used as files, and bronze or
copper tongs. The high carat gold was soft and therefore easily
worked, and the results achieved with such a limited range of tools
were quite outstanding. Techniques included soldering, hammering,
molding, beating, and decorative processes such as chasing,
engraving, embossing, repoussé, inlaying, granular and filigree
work, and cloisonné. The metals were set with semiprecious stones
chosen for their colors rather than their refraction. These were
brought in from the desert or from abroad: The most popular were
carnelian (from the Eastern Desert), turquoise (mined in Sinai), and
lapis lazuli (from Afghanistan). Other local stones included jasper,
garnet, green feldspar, amethyst, rock crystal, obsidian, calcite,
and chalcedony. Because there was such a demand for some of these
stones, artificial copies were also produced: Transparent calcite
and rock crystal were backed with colored cement, Egyptian faience
was produced to imitate lapis lazuli, and by the New Kingdom colored
glass was commercially produced. The workshops appear to have
accommodated goldsmiths alongside lapidaries and cutters, bead
makers, and stone setters. They all carried out their tasks under
joint supervision, and they were probably responsible to a chief
jeweler who would have been trained both as a scribe and as
craftsman and perhaps had some freedom in designing the jewelry. The
crafts were handed down in families, but in some pieces of royal
jewelry, especially those made during the Middle Kingdom, there is
some indication of foreign influence. It is possible that highly
skilled foreign jewelers were welcomed and settled in Egypt at this
time. The stones were bored and engraved by the lapidaries and then
passed on to the setters. At Memphis, the center of jewelers from
the Old Kingdom, dwarfs with normal-size bodies but stunted arms and
legs appear to have carried out this work. Although their activities
are represented in the Old Kingdom tomb of Mereruka at Saqqara,
however, there are no further references to them in later periods.
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Industry : Jewelry
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