Shells in Jewellery from Middle Kingdom Egypt

An interesting aspect of Egyptian maritime activities of the 12th Dynasty in the Red Sea is the impact on craft and jewellery. During this period, shell-shaped pendants made from a sheet of gold or electrum became very common in goldsmithing, such as the cowrie-shell girdles found in the tombs of the 12th Dynasty royal women at Lahun and Dashur. Used as ornaments from the period of the Badarian culture, cowrie-shells were fertility amulets linked to female sexuality and hathoric symbolism, but also a kind of insignia for members of maritime expeditions around the Red Sea. The metallurgical study of these reproductions of shells in precious metals is a means of researching the techniques, tools and ancient world of metallurgy. Experimental archaeology can help us research and understand the metallurgical processes behind this precious and symbolic artistic expression, connected to human-environment relations.