<em>Beaded Netting for a Mummy</em>, 760–656 B.C.E. Faience, 13 x 1/4 x 59 1/16 in. (33 x 0.7 x 150 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1814E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1814E_PS9.jpg)

Beaded Netting for a Mummy, 760–656 B.C.E. Faience, 13 x 1/4 x 59 1/16 in. (33 x 0.7 x 150 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1814E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1814E_PS9.jpg)

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

What is this?

That beaded netting was used to wrap mummies before putting them into the coffins. It would have added more symbolic decoration to the linen wrappings. The color blue held a lot of meaning especially connected with rebirth in Ancient Egypt.

What is this?

That is called "beaded netting." It's basically a decoration for a mummy. It's made of blue glaze faience beads. The color blue was associated with rebirth and precious materials--like lapis and turquoise.

Could you tell me how faience was made?

Faience is a man-made mixture of "ground quartz or quartz-sand held together by and alkaline binder. The bright and shiny surface seen on this figurine is a result of glazing. The glaze was made of a form of powdered glass mixed with a liquid and applied either with a brush or by dipping the entire figurine.

It gets it's blue color from copper that is mixed into or applied to the surface of the quartz body before firing.

Read about how Glass was a foreign import to Egypt and this information lead me to revisit the beaded netting. I see that these bugle beads are baked clay. I am a bead worker. I naturally thought that these were glass. It was only when I read about glass not being worked in Egypt that I identified and upon closer look see that this piece is baked. Awesomeness!

Yes! I do love the beaded netting too. Faience is a truly fascinating material! As you may have read it was meant to be draped over a mummy. It wasn't just random decoration though, the diamonds formed by the net of beads mimicked patterns on clothing the deceased would have worn in life.

The travel of glass production techniques is really interesting too! It was first developed in the Near East (Mesopotamia), the Egyptians learned it from them. The Greeks learned from the Egyptians and the Romans learned from the Greeks!

How did they make these beads?

These beads are made of faience, a versatile material that the ancient Egyptians used to make many different types objects. Faience is a quartz-based paste that could be molded into a variety of small forms and then fired. The paste is naturally sparkling white and to color these beads they applied a copper based glaze that was also fired.

If you see some more matte faience objects, that color was applied by mixing the chemical pigments into the paste. The color rises to the surface in the kiln.

Tell me more.

A net like this would have been draped over a mummified body placed in a coffin! The pattern is not unlike those the ancient Egyptians would wear in their lifetime and was actually meant to mimic the pattern of the dress.

Blue beads were thought to assure successful rebirth into the afterlife by linking the deceased with Osiris, who was often depicted wearing bead net garments.

This is a real mummy cover? Well part of it?

Yes! A net like this would have been draped over a mummified body placed in a coffin. The arrangement of the beads mimics the pattern of the cloak worn by the god Osiris, king of the afterlife.

Beaded Netting for a Mummy

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Attached to a linen shroud, this type of bead net covered the mummy from just below the shoulders to the feet. It was once adorned with faience figures of a winged scarab and the Four Sons of Horus. Blue bead nets were believed to assure rebirth by linking the deceased to Osiris and the sky goddess Nut. These gods were often depicted wearing bead net garments that were in fashion during the Old Kingdom, almost two millennia earlier.

MEDIUM Faience

Reportedly From: Abusir, Egypt

DATES 760–656 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 25

PERIOD Late Period

DIMENSIONS 13 x 1/4 x 59 1/16 in. (33 x 0.7 x 150 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 37.1814E

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Long rectangular network of faience beads from a mummy. The major portion of the net is made of two types of blue glazed faience beads: short cylindrical beads and long cylindrical beads. They are strung in a pattern of lozenges. In a few cases there are two small beads at the intersection of four long beads. The cord (string) is made from two strands twisted together. On one of the short ends of the net, and one part of the bottom edge adjacent to this end there is preserved the original fringe of the net. This consisted of an extension, from every other intersection of two long cylindrical beads and of three long beads. At the opposite end of the net is preserved part of a different type of border decoration. This is a border formed by stringing, close together, of blue, tan, and white beads. Condition: Many beads missing and much of original string gone.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Beaded Netting for a Mummy, 760–656 B.C.E. Faience, 13 x 1/4 x 59 1/16 in. (33 x 0.7 x 150 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1814E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1814E_PS9.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 37.1814E_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2015

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

What is this?

Could you tell me how faience was made?

It gets it's blue color from copper that is mixed into or applied to the surface of the quartz body before firing.

How did they make these beads?

If you see some more matte faience objects, that color was applied by mixing the chemical pigments into the paste. The color rises to the surface in the kiln.

Tell me more.

Blue beads were thought to assure successful rebirth into the afterlife by linking the deceased with Osiris, who was often depicted wearing bead net garments.

This is a real mummy cover? Well part of it?

Yes! A net like this would have been draped over a mummified body placed in a coffin. The arrangement of the beads mimics the pattern of the cloak worn by the god Osiris, king of the afterlife.