This broad collar says it is made from blue "faience." In all my years of being a jeweler, I have never heard of faience. Please give me a little history!
Okay, since you are a jeweler you are going to get an in-depth answer! The Egyptian word for the material called “faience” by Egyptologists means “brilliant,” and indeed the surface of fired faience objects is usually brilliant in color, most often blue or green. Egyptian faience is not, however, glazed earthenware like the “true” Italian faience (from Faenza). In fact, what Egyptologists call faience is not clay based but consists mainly of quartz. It was made from ground desert sand—which naturally contains some limestone, clay, and mineral particles—to which natron and water were added. Firing this paste produced the typical porous, whitish or grayish core of Egyptian faience. The surface glaze was achieved in a number of ways. In one technique the coloring material (copper) was added directly to the core paste and during the drying and firing process the glaze formed by efflorescence on the surface. Another method called cementation consisted of placing dried faience in a powder that would create the glaze. For the Egyptians the lighter shade of blue was almost interchangeable with green, the color of the sea, plants, vegetation, and thus health and life. The darker shade of blue was associated with the dark primordial waters out of which creation first appeared, as well as the night sky through which the sun-god travelled to be reborn every morning. Naturally, blue-green faience and blue glass were cheaper alternatives to turquoise and lapis-lazuli.
Wow, thank you!
I'm curious about this.
Such a beautiful necklace! This deep rich blue that is made of is a really interesting material called faience, considered by Egyptologists as the first high-tech ceramic. The material is made of pure ground quartz, which has a dazzling, white look to it, which is why the ancient Egyptians called it tjehenet (dazzling). The quartz would have several other ingredients added to it; a small part of lime or calcium oxide and soda, all found in the rich desert sands and quarries in their landscape. These ingredients were either added to it before firing in the kiln, so that the beautiful blue would rise to the surface, or it would be put in a vessel of this powder so it would be coated from the outside while fired. Faience is glazed in many different shades of green and blue, which you'll see throughout the galleries.
Does faience still exist or do we only use ceramics now?
That's a great question! There may be artists that currently work in this method, but I'm not entirely sure if their process would be the same as an Ancient Egyptian's.
I think she could pull this off. Do y'all have a fitting tomb?
No, but we provide the convenient relief of Pair Statues of King Ramesses II to give you an idea of what it looks like on!
To whom did this necklace belong?
That is a good question, but we do not know the exact answer. We know, in general, that this type of necklace was very popular. You may have seen some of the images of people from ancient Egypt wearing the same kind of necklace in different colors. It's called a "wesekh" or a broad-collar and the shape is based on a very ancient necklace that would have been made out of flowers. Even though the Egyptians stopped making the necklaces out of flower they still carried the same power. Flowers were linked to being reborn and achieving an afterlife because, in real life, flowers die and come back the next year!
Okay! It's very interesting.
Why do the king and queens have such big necklaces.
Not just the kings and queens, but lots of people in ancient Egypt wore necklaces like this! Like many things in ancient Egypt, they were related to rebirth and eternal life.
Scholars think that this type of necklace, called a wesekh collar, which is made of beads, is based on necklaces that they used to make out of flowers.
Flowers were important to Egyptian beliefs because they appear to die and come back to life again like the ancient Egyptians hoped to do.
Was this necklace used for decorative or religious purposes?
The shape is based on an even more ancient necklace that was made of flowers which were symbols of rebirth because they die and come back the next season. The broad collars carried a similar meaning.
So do the dead wear it?
It was especially popular in funerary art because the ancient Egyptians believed one had to be reborn into the afterlife. However, one like this may have
been worn in life as well.
