The pectorals of

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

were a form of jewelry, often in the form of a

brooch A brooch (, ) is a decorative jewellery item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with gem ...

. They are often also

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word , which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects a perso ...

s, and may be so described. They were mostly worn by richer people and the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

. One type is attached with a ''nah'' necklace, suspended from the neck and lying on the breast. Statuary from the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...

onwards shows this form. Louvre_-_pectoral_au_nom_de_Ramses_II

A later form was attached as a brooch, with the thematic, iconographic function and statement outweighing its actual use as a piece of

jewellery Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

for adornment. The thematic statements were typically about the

or statements of

ian mythology and culture. They are usually of gold with

cloisonné Cloisonné () is an ancient technology, ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inla ...

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with the ...

s of

gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, semiprecious stone, or simply gem) is a piece of mineral crystal which, when cut or polished, is used to make jewellery, jewelry or other adornments. Certain Rock (geology), rocks (such ...

s. Pectoral varies in size, from a simple motif suspended from the sternum to the size of a breastplate. It is made of precious metal, fabric, bone, or any other material.

Bijou (jewellery)

This object appears from

ancient times Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

, in

as well as among the

Hebrews The Hebrews (; ) were an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic-speaking people. Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era, which pre ...

. It is also found in many civilizations of the Mediterranean basin,

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, and among indigenous peoples. It originates from a need for magical protection.

History

Ancient Egypt

The Egyptian pectoral model comes in two forms. It can appear as a rigid or articulated

necklace A necklace is an article of jewellery that is worn around the neck. Necklaces may have been one of the earliest types of adornment worn by humans. They often serve ceremonial, religious, magical, or funerary purposes and are also used as sy ...

, suspended by a chain around the neck and descending to mid-chest, or even covering it. It can also take the form of a large brooch attached by a pin to the neck or

sternum The sternum (: sternums or sterna) or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major bl ...

Ancient Egyptian definition of pectoral

The many

determinative A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they ...

s for ''pectoral'' are not portrayed in the Gardiner's Sign List. However, one of the 10 words for 'pectoral', or 'collar' uses the

Usekh collar As early as the Old Kingdom (c. 2670–2195 B.C.), Egyptian artisans fashioned images of deities, kings, and mortals wearing broad collars made of molded tubular and teardrop beads. The Usekh or Wesekh is a personal ornament, a type of broad Co ...

determinative, S11, the ''"collar necklace"'' S11. However a similar hieroglyph for the verb "to collar", "to net" shows the relationship between the two Gardiner-listed hieroglyphs T24.

The basic definition of a brooch is as a wide piece of jewellery. Therefore, one form of the 'pectoral' word listings uses the word for "breadth, broad", "to be wide or spacious", the

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

word ''usekh''. (Cf.

Pectoral determinatives

Though Gardiner lists only the "broad collar", S11, the following listing of words for ''"pectoral"'' shows the other types of ''pectoral jewellery'' forms that have a Gardiner-unlisted type of pectoral hieroglyph sign: The list of ''Gardiner-unlisted''

s for pectoral: :ari aui-(''none'') (bracelets, armlets) :usekh-(Gard-unl. 1 to 7) (8 is the S11 collar) :utcha-(Gard-unl. 9 to 12) (12 has beads) :babaa-{Gard-unl. 13) ('necklace of beads', pectoral) :beb-{Gard-unl. 13) (a metal pectoral or breastplate, collar) (uraeus headdress (?)) :menqebit-(''none'') (collar or pectoral to which the serpent amulet was attached) :hebner-{Gard-unl. 2 (similar to collar S11)) (collar, pectoral, neckband) :heter-t-(''none'') (a pectoral, a pectoral amulet) :

hkakerit-(Gard. Aa30-used horizontally)Aa30(ornaments, collar, pectoral, head-attire)

:sheb-{Gard-unl. 15) (collar, necklace, pectoral) 'None' may have an alternate determinative used to define the word. From the above definitions, it can be seen that the ''collar, neckband, pectoral, beads, etc.'', can also include

s inclusive into the pectoral's

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

. The above listed words are refenced in

E. A. Wallis Budge Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (27 July 185723 November 1934) was an English Egyptology, Egyptologist, Orientalism, Orientalist, and Philology, philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient ...

's "dictionary" to 200 works: steles, papyri, Egyptian literature, personal literature, etc., or the approximate 120 authors referenced.

Statuary with pectorals

Standing statues, or others were sometimes represented with various forms of jewellery, including pectorals; some are enigmatic in what is being portrayed, whether to gods, or what the symbolism represents.

Famous pectorals; hieroglyph statements

Statements in

Egyptian language The Egyptian language, or Ancient Egyptian (; ), is an extinct branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts, which were made accessible to the modern world ...

hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

were often the theme of famous pectorals, regardless of their actual use for adornment. One famous complex pectoral for

Amenemhat III :''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat III (Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dyn ...

has a statement of his rulership. The Pectoral of Amenemhat III states the following: :''Lord (of) Heaven, God-Good, Lord of the Two Lands, 'Ny-

Maat Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian: ''mꜣꜥt'' /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...

-Ra', Lord (of all) Lands. : pt-nb, ''ntr-nft'', nb-tawy, ''n-maat-a-t-Ra'', nb-hastw. ('Ny-

-Ra' is Amenemhat III's prenomen name.) Kamrin's modern hieroglyph primer for Egyptian artifacts uses Amenemhat III's pectoral for Exercise 22, Object 3. The discussion explains that the extended wings of the Vulture Goddess relate to "Lord of the Sky"-(pt), the Vulture Goddess, (but also implying the pharaoh is Lord of the

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

). Her translation: ''"Lord (Lady) of the

sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

Nimaatre (Amenemhat III), the good god, lord of the Two Lands and of all foreign Lands."'' (nb pt n-m3't-r' nthr nfr nb t3wy h3swt nb(w)t)Kamrin, 2004. ''Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide'', p. 84, p. 216.

"Pectorals as a brooch" gallery

File:Tutankhamun scarab1.jpg, hieroglyphs:

ankh The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a tri ...

, basket,

Eye of Horus The Eye of Horus, also known as left ''wedjat'' eye or ''udjat'' eye, specular to the Eye of Ra (right ''wedjat'' eye), is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion that represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from th ...

, Sun Disk-(Gard. N5) File:Pectoral of Tutankhamun by R. Hession.jpg, Heart scarab pectoral of Tutankhamun

"Pectorals as necklace" gallery

File:Eye of Ra pendant.jpg,

pectoral.
hieroglyphs: Red crown, White crown,

Shen ring In ancient Egypt, a shen ring was a circle with a line tangent to it, represented in hieroglyphs as a stylised loop of a rope, bound to a stick. The tool used by builders and architects. Shen rings can most often be seen in the clutches of Horu ...

, uraeus, mut vulture, Eye of Horus

Notes

References

*Budge. ''An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary,'' E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), © 1978, (© 1920), Dover edition, 1978. (In two volumes, 1314 pages.) (softcover, ) *Kamrin, 2004. '' Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide'', Janice Kamrin, © 2004, Harry N. Abrams, Publisher, (''Photos or graphics of 73 Ancient Egyptian objects'' analyzed-(Exercises-(51), Objects)) (hardcover, {{ISBN, 0-8109-4961-X) *Lambelet. ''Orbis Terrae Aegiptiae, Museum Aegiptium'', ''Illustrated Guide of the Egyptian Museum'', Edouard Lambelet, © 1981, Lehnert & Landrock & Co. (no ISBN) Brooches Egyptian artefact types Necklaces Types of jewellery