570 Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie [Feb. 11, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 11, 1916. 



Edward Pollock, F.R.C.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Professor AV. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L Litt.D. LL.D. 

 F.R.S. F.B.A. 



Egyptian Jewellery. 



Far back in the prehistoric civilisation of Egypt began the search 

 for beautiful materials. The choicest qualities of flint were 

 selected as subjects for the most delicate flaking, more refined 

 than any such work since then. The desert was ransacked for 

 carnelian, garnet, noble serpentine and turquoise. Lazuli was 

 imported from Persia, and emery-rock to cut the stones from 

 vSmyrna. The most beautiful rocks, porphyry, diorite, blue and 

 green volcanic ash, coloured marbles, were sought for the dishes and 

 cups of the table service. Never in later times was there a more 

 general use of fine materials than at the dawn of history. Nor is 

 Egypt alone in this, the earliest stone vases of Crete are also the 

 most beautiful. 



Fortunately there remains from that age a set of bracelets which 

 show us the earliest jewellery. The arm of a queen of the 1st 

 Dynasty, which I found at Abydos, had four bracelets of gold, tur- 

 quoise, lazuli and amethyst. The soldering of the gold was perfect, 

 without a trace of excess or difference of colour. 



After that there is nothing known of the Great Pyramid age, 

 when the noblest work might be expected, but on coming to the 

 Xllth Dynasty an abundance is known to us. Strings of splendid 

 amethyst or carnelian beads were commonly worn. Gold work was 

 decorated with patterns of fine globules of gold like the later 

 Etruscan jewellery. Naturalistic figures of fishes show the most 

 careful modelling. The great development of this age was the 

 inlaid designs, 7iot enamels, but champleve inlays of hard stone. 



The crowns are, perhaps, the most striking pieces of the Dahshur 

 jewellery. Every minute piece of the little florets was cut and 

 polished separately, and they were then attached to the maze of fine 

 gold threads which enclosed the hair. 



The pectorals were the greatest triumphs of skill. A bold 

 design of openwork in gold w^as inlaid with hundreds of pieces of 

 coloured stones, too minute to be handled except with a wet needle. 

 The gold engraved side is shown here for the minute engraving. 



