Bracelet (Bangle)

Discussion of the group:

This flint bangle fragment is one of four in The Met’s collection (02.4.77-02.4.80) which come from Tomb M14 in Kom es-Sultan, Abydos. The tomb occupant wore seven flint bangles on the left arm and one on the right arm (Petrie 1902:16). The bangles are all of very similar size, with interior diameters ranging from 5.5-5.8 cm, heights of .47-.5cm, and widths from .26-.36, a variation of just 1 mm. These similar dimensions and color suggest that the bangles may have been selected as a group for their similar size and color.

There were at least two production sites for flint bangles, Wadi el-Sheikh (Köhler et al. 2017) and Wadi Sannur (Briois and Midant-Reynes 2014, 2015), both of which are places where flint mining took place. Unfinished pieces, including disk-shaped preforms, and flaked but unpolished bangle fragments have been found at these sites, and provide indications of the production process. Thin flat nodules or large flakes were selected as the blanks, then flaked into even flat disks through soft or hard hammer direct percussion. Next, a hole was started in the center of the piece by small pecking or chipping, as can be seen on some remaining fragments. Drilling was possibly used in combination with the chipping, but so far, there is no direct evidence for it. This stage of hollowing was clearly the most skillful and riskiest part of the process as many all of the disk fragments broke at this point, sheering through the center. Once the hole was made, it was widened by flaking perpendicular to the face of the disk. Afterwards the flaked bangles must have been transported to the Nile valley and Delta, where most of the finished products are found. A small number of flaked bangle fragments and very few polished fragments have been found in Nile valley settlement sites indicating that the time-consuming polishing stage probably took place in the settlements rather than at the flint mining sites (Kabacinski 2003; Katthagen 1985; Schmidt 1987, 1989, 1992; Pawlik 2006; Quibell & Petrie 1900). The majority of bangles come from cemetery contexts (Klasens 1958; Köhler 2004; William M. Flinders Petrie 1901b, 1901a, 1902, 1907, 1913; Petrie & Brunton 1924; Reisner 1908; Saad 1947).

The degree of polishing varies from barely polished, where practically all flake scars are still visible, to completely polished, where all flake scars were obliterated. This variability indicates that there was not one prevailing "look" desired for these items. However, polished flint bangles are much more numerous than simply flaked ones, so it is likely that most were intended to be polished to some degree.

Polished bangles are found almost entirely in cemetery contexts, which suggests that these items were produced especially for the afterlife since polished fragments would be more frequent in settlements if these fragile items were worn during life. Often the deceased wore multiple bangles together, just as the deceased in this tomb, who wore seven on one arm and one on the other. In Tarkhan tomb 149, the tomb occupant wore four on each arm (Petrie 1913: 11, 22, Pl. 3), and the owner of Hiw Tomb U 354 wore six on one arm (Petrie 1901a: 36, Pl. 7). Like the variability in polishing, there was some flexibility in how flint bangles could be used to adorn the body.

These bangles show that flinknapping skill and creativity was alive and well in the Early Dynastic period, with a production process that stretched across the country, applied to making beautiful, delicate and technologically intricate jewelry that could transform the body of the deceased in the afterlife.

Discussion of the individual piece:

This bangle was made through a combination of flaking and grinding. Flake scars are still visible on the interior of the bangle, and were initiated from both faces of the preform. The flake scars on the exterior have been almost entirely obliterated by grinding, but small depressions are still visible in some areas. The cross section is D-shaped, but the interior is slightly convex due to grinding from both faces. The raw material is a semi-translucent pale brown (10YR 6/3) with no discernable structures except for some color variation. The interior diameter ranges from 5.6 to 5.64 cm. The bangle has been repaired.

Elizabeth Hart, J. Clawson Mills Research Fellow, 2018

References

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Egypt Exploration Fund excavations. Acquired by the EEF in the division of finds. Acquired by the Museum through subscription to the EEF, 1902.

Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Sir 1902. Abydos, 1. Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 22. London: Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, p. 16; pl. 48.

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