Rings and necklace

Middle Kingdom

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 105

The tomb of Wah was discovered in March 1920 by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition. The undecorated corridor contained a coffin and some food offerings. Inside the coffin were a well preserved mummy, linen sheets, a group of staffs, and a number of funerary items such as a mirror, sandals, a headrest, and a small statue. The entire tomb group was awarded to the Museum in the division of finds.

Wah's jewelry was revealed when his mummy was x-rayed in 1939. To no one's surprise, the x-rays showed that Wah's body had been adorned with typical funerary jewelry of the early Middle Kingdom: a broad collar, bracelets, and anklets made of the blue ceramic material called Egyptian faience (40.3.2-.10), and a carnelian -bead (40.3.1). Unexpectedly, he also had personal jewelry of stone and metal (40.3.11-.19). When the mummy was unwrapped in 1940, the superb jewelry was seen for the first time since Wah's burial some 39 centuries earlier.

Rings and necklace, Carnelian and linen thread; blue-glazed steatite and linen thread; carnelian, turquoise, moss agate, amethyst, milky quartz, green-glazed steatite, and twisted linen cord

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

40.3.1 (sweret bead); 40.3.16 (necklace); 40.3.11 (scarab)