The 17th Dynasty gold necklace from Qurneh, Egypt

Abstract

In 1908, the archaeologist Flinders Petrie discovered a rich intact burial of an adult and child at Qurneh, near Luxor. Stylistically, the burial has been dated to the late 17th Dynasty, in the 16th century BC. The complete burial group came to Edinburgh in 1909. A recent examination of the rings of the necklace found with the adult burial is presented as part of a wider study of the mummy collections of the National Museums Scotland (NMS). The necklace shows sophisticated workmanship, with 1,699 rings threaded onto four strands, the rings having uniform diameter and thickness, and very few of them showing any visible joints. The necklace rings have been examined by Optical Microscopy, X-radiography, Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDS), air-path X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), and proton induced X-ray analysis (micro-PIXE). We summarise these findings and propose the method of manufacture. We also describe an experimental attempt to make joint-less rings in order to compare them with the originals.

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