Ancient Artifacts: Ornamental Beads from Egyptian Tombs
by Chris Retzlaff, Victor Gordillo, Kyle Helmick, Krystal Arnold, Cameron Jesse, Kurt Lahmers, Victoria Arnold, Luke Sattler (CSMS Juniors) and Ciena Higginbotham, Patrick Glover, Auston Mammenga, Ruth Powell, Jessica Kennedy (LGGMS Pebble Pups), ages 13-15
From: Pick & Pack and LGGMC Newsletter, 11 & 12/2010
(3rd Place – AFMS Junior Articles, 12-17)

A
ncient Egypt flourished along the Nile River for over 3,000 years. During that time, Egyptians built pyramids and temples, mummified pharaohs, put up obelisks, and created wonderful works of art. Egyptian art also included brightly colored beads in a variety of shapes and sizes. These beads were made of gold, copper, and semi-precious gemstones and were put together in elaborate ways.

The use of beads goes far back into antiquity and is an expression of behavior unique to man. Beads were among the very first manufactured products. The bead was perfected to help satisfy the basic need for personal adornment. The artistry of design, rich colors, durability, play of light, and natural materials have given the bead a unique status in personal adornment.

In ancient Egypt, beads were worn for both decorative and symbolic purposes. There is evidence that beads had symbolic meaning, had a spiritual and magic dimension, and were believed to have a link with supernatural powers. Beads in ancient Egypt were fashioned by craftsmen and were used chiefly for necklaces. Egyptians strung beads together into wide, fan-shaped necklaces called bead collars.

Egyptian beads were often made of ceramic or glazed clay (faience). Beads were also made from semi-precious gemstones. Craftsmen used agate, amethyst, calcite, carnelian, feldspar, jade, jasper, lapis lazuli, and turquoise to make beads. Most of the gemstones were native to Egypt. Craftsmen would take long trips into the deserts in search of rocks, gems, and minerals. They would then spend considerable time in the excavation of natural materials used to make beads.

Bead making was documented on the wall paintings in the tomb of Rekhmire, which depicts craftsmen stringing beads and drilling holes with a bow drill (Coles, 1995). Craftsmen skillfully formed beads into a variety of shapes and then polished them. Some beads were inscribed with symbolic markings. Since the strings that held beads together were made of organic material, they rotted away over the centuries, leaving the beads scattered with no clues to their original order.

Recently, the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society's (CSMS) Junior group and the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club's (LGGMC) Pebble Pups conducted a study project, working with ancient Egyptian beads that were found in a tomb. This collection of artifacts, over 3,000 years old, was purchased from an antiquities dealer located in the Midwest. The study group worked with beads made of garnets, lapis lazuli, chalcedony, and copper. The group studied 10 beads. For each bead, they recorded the size, weight, color, raw material, and shape (Table 1). Raw-material identification was based on tests and observation under a binocular microscope
with a magnification of 40X.

The location and archaeological context was lost, as the beads were excavated in the 18th and 19th centuries and sold on the antiquities market. These beads, because they were made of semi-precious gemstones and of ancient Egyptian origin, will serve the purpose of this study and give the CSMS and LGGMC junior groups practice in research, laboratory procedures, and report writing.

Garnet
Egyptian craftsmen worked with a group of minerals collectively called garnet. The garnet that was commonly used by the Egyptians was a dark red, translucent semi- precious gem found in Egypt, mainly at Aswan, in the eastern desert. The garnets were worked into small spheres or had multiple facets.

Garnets are commonly found in schist or gneiss (Bishop, era/., 2005). There are many kinds of garnets, including spessartine, uvarovite, hessonite, grossular, almandine, melanite, and pyrope, which is what the beads in figures 1 and 2 are made of. Because the chemical composition of garnet varies, members of this mineral group show a range of hardness on the Mohs scale, from about 6.5 to 7.5.

Carnelian
Carnelian, a variety of cryptocrystalline quartz, occurs in a number of places in Egypt. This reddish-brown mineral was used in ancient Egypt for beads, pendants, jewels, and scarabs. The Egyptians believed that the stone could fight anger, hate, and envy. People of high social status were often buried with this gemstone. The orange to brownish red color comes from iron impurities. The hardness is 6.5-7, and the specific gravity is 2.58-2.64. Carnelian has no cleavage and uneven fracture. Carnelian was used in lapidary arts for its pretty color and hardness. The word carnelian is from the Latin word carnis, meaning flesh, for its fleshy muscle color. Bishop, era/., 2005).

Lapis lazuli
The most precious of all materials used by Egyptian jewelers was lapis lazuli, a dark blue gemstone with flecks of pyrite. Lapis lazuli is not a mineral but a rock comprised of the minerals lazurite, calcite, pyrite, and sodalite. Lapis lazuli with no calcite and only small amounts of pyrite has a greater value. Lapis lazuli has no cleavage and the fracture is uneven. On the Mohs scale of hardness, it is 5 to 5.5. The luster is dull and the streak is light blue. Lapis lazuli was used by ancient Egyptians for jewelry, carvings, medicine, and perhaps ground to a powder and used as eye shadow. Lapis lazuli is rare, and was traded to Egypt from the area that is now Afghanistan (Coles, 1995). Other places where it is mined include Chile, Russia, Angola, Myanmar, Canada and even a few places in the United States, such as California and Colorado.

Copper
The civilization of Ancient Egypt was one of the most technologically advanced of its time. During its existence, Egyptian craftsmen went from using stone to more advanced metals like iron. The Egyptians' Chalcolithic Period, or Copper Age, lasted from around 4000 B.C. to 3150 B.C. (Reshafim, 2003).

There are many applications of copper. In the Egyptians' case, the first use of copper was to make beads and small tools (Reshafim, 2003). Copper was also used in the making of the only remaining Ancient Wonder of the World, the Giza Pyramid, along with the other pyramids. Egyptians formed copper into small wedges that were pushed into fractures in the rock in order to break them into usable sizes for pyramid building (Morell, 2001). Furthermore, masons used copper blades to cut grooves in rocks before quarrying (Morell, 2001). Not only was copper used for beads and tools but, later on, copper was used in everything from weapons, vessels, and plates to axes, statues, and knives (Reshafim, 2003).

In order to make use of copper, the Egyptians first had to discover it, mine it, smelt it, and cast it. Copper was mined all over their territory. Copper mines were located at Buhen, Hamash, Wadi Araba, Wadi Sitra, and Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula (Quirke, 2001). Egypt also imported copper from Cyprus and the Near East (Quirke, 2001).

Once the copper was mined, the process of smelting began. Copper was melted in primitive furnaces that were heated with charcoal made from acacia wood (Reshafim, 2002). The ventilation for these furnaces was initially provided by blow holes and later by bellows (Reshafim, 2002). As soon as the copper was melted, it was cast by lifting the pot off the fire and pouring the molten copper into a clay mold, which created the copper item (Reshafim, 2002).

The Egyptians' use of copper helped them advance their civilization to great achievements. One of those achievements can still be seen today: the Pyramid of Giza.

References:
Bishop, A.C, Woorley, A.R., and Hamilton, W.R., 2005. Guide to Rocks & Fossils, Firefly Books. 336 p.

Coles, J., 1995. Fun with Beads Ancient Egypt, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 96 p.

Morell, Virginia., 2001. "The Pyramid Builders." National Geographic 200, no. 5: 78. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost. [cited April 2, 2010.]
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=ll&hid=7&sid=ea6738ca-902f-47be-922461cadb53716f%40sessionmgrl2&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGI2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRI .

Quirke, Stephen., 2001. Digital Egypt for Universities. Copper in Egypt. [Online] University College London, 2001. [Cited: April 2, 2010.]
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/metal/copper.html# .

Reshafim, Kibbutz., 2002. Foundry Workers. An Introduction to the History and Culture of Pharaonic Egypt. [Online] 2002. [Cited: April 2, 2010.]
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/trades/bronze_casting.htm .

—., 2003. Metals: Sources, Technologies, Uses. An Introduction to the History and Culture of Pharaonic Egypt. [Online] 2003. [Cited: April 2, 2010.]
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/trades/metals.htm .

Author contributions: The authors designed and performed the research, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. These students worked under Steven Veatch, leader for the CSMS and LGGMC youth.