Yvonne J. Markowitz and Denise M. Doxey

The Museum of Fine Arts,

Boston, has one of the most

comprehensive collections

of jewelry in the world. With nearly

twenty thousand objects, its holdings

include adornments from six

continents and range in date from

ancient to modern times. Amassed

over the past one hundred forty years,

the ornaments were acquired through

gifts, bequests and purchases, as well

as excavations conducted by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of

Fine Arts Expedition in the early decades of the twentieth century. Beginning

July 19, the Museum opened a stunning exhibition of excavated Nubian

adornments in the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery, a

space dedicated to the display of jewelry.

The Harvard–Boston Expedition team was active in Sudan during the years

1907 to 1932. There, thousands of years ago, ancient Nubian artisans created

some of the most spectacular jewelry made in antiquity. As was customary at

the time, half of the ornaments discovered were assigned to the museum (the

other half to Khartoum) where over the years they have been researched,

conserved and displayed. This work has been greatly aided by a rich archive

that includes thousands of photographs, drawings, maps, excavation notes, and

diaries. The jewelry, as well as statuary, temple relief and tomb depictions

illustrating how jewelry was worn, offers insights into the daily life of the

Nubians, including their aesthetic preferences, religious beliefs, technological

inventiveness, and relations with foreign lands.

The peoples of ancient Nubia were an indigenous African population who

occupied the land between Aswan in the north and Khartoum in the south.

Their neighbor to the north was Egypt, a formidable state with a rich material

culture that looked to Nubia for exotic goods such as ivory, ebony, animal

skins, ostrich eggs, and gold. Gold was an important commodity in the ancient

Near East and was used to make a variety of luxury goods. It was also a sacred

substance, associated in both Egypt and Nubia with the powerful sun god,

Amen-Re. Some scholars have even suggested that the name Nubia derives

from the Egyptian word nbw, meaning gold.

Gold and the Gods

Jewels of Ancient Nubia

Ancient Nubian

artisans created

some of the most

spectacular jewelry

made in antiquity.

32

O

RN

AM

EN

T 3

7.4

.20

14

37_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 3237_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 32 9/16/14 10:51 AM9/16/14 10:51 AM

FAIENCE BEAD NECKLACE with glazed quartz crystal pendant, 5.1 centimeters, Classic

Kerma. Lustrous glazed quartz crystals were believed to have magical properties. GOLD

NUGGET PENDANT, 3.3 centimeters, Napatan Period. MINIATURE DAGGER of gold, bronze

and elephant ivory, 17 centimeters, Classic Kerma. Opposite page: STEATITE INSCRIBED

BALL, reign of Piankhy (Piye), 3.2 centimeters, Napatan Period. Photographs © Museum

of Fine Arts, Boston: Harvard University —Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition.

Early in Nubia’s history, a good deal of jewelry was imported from

Egypt, especially ornaments made of faience, a synthetic, quartz-based

ceramic with a vitreous, colored glaze. By the Classic Kerma period

(1700-1550 B.C.), the Nubians, who had established a kingdom in

what is now northern Sudan near the third cataract, mastered faience

technology and turned their energies to glazing clear quartz a dazzling

blue. The most common objects made of this material were spherical,

translucent beads that were used in necklaces, bracelets and

occasionally on textiles. One necklace with faience star-shaped beads

and a cylindrical, silver amulet case from Egypt includes several of

these beads as well as carnelian beads produced locally. More unusual

and unique to Nubia are glazed, six-sided natural quartz pendants

worn around the neck or waist. It has been suggested that the quartz

was believed to possess magical properties because of its association

with gold in metal-rich quartz veins.

Kerma’s formidable warriors were also buried with distinctive

items of adornment. Functional swords and daggers were

accompanied by miniature examples made with precious materials,

which must have served a ceremonial function. Large, stylized fly

pendants made of ivory and bronze were also recovered from the

tombs of warriors and were typically found in pairs. These curious

ornaments may be based on the fact that Nubian soldiers were

reputed to be tough, tenacious fighters likened to the determined

aggressiveness of the Nilotic fly. Later, the Egyptians adopted the fly

as their own military decoration, indirectly paying homage to the skill

and valor of Nubian warriors. Egyptian flies, however, were smaller

and often made of gold.

By the mid-eighth century B.C. (the Napatan period), the

Nubians established a powerful dynasty that conquered Egypt and

ruled the entire Nile valley. They were heavily influenced by Egyptian

culture, adopting its written language and aspects of their

architecture, decorative arts, religion, and funerary customs. Some of

the objects created and worn during this period appear to be of

Egyptian origin while others are uniquely Nubian. An outstanding

example of an Egyptian-made jewel is the Hathor-headed crystal

pendant (see Cover) found in the burial of a queen of Piankhy (743-

712 B.C.), the ruler credited with establishing Nubian dominion over

Egypt. Hathor, a popular Egyptian goddess who personified love,

fertility, motherhood, and music, was also worshipped in Nubia at

this time, and her image appears on scarabs, ceramics and horse

trappings. In this pendant she is depicted as a woman wearing a

headdress composed of two cow horns, a sun disk and a uraeus, the

stylized upright cobra that signified royalty or divine authority. The

head surmounts a rock crystal orb with a hollow gold tube in the

33

O

RN

AM

EN

T 3

7.4

.20

14

37_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 3337_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 33 9/16/14 10:51 AM9/16/14 10:51 AM

center believed to contain a thin gold sheet or papyrus inscribed with

magical figures and text.

In the same queen’s tomb were additional pendants in the

Egyptian style. However, other adornments exhibit distinctly Nubian

features. This is especially the case with some of the large faience

pendants with representations of the female figure. One example

features a nude, winged goddess crowned with a sun disk, a pair of

horns and a double plume. The goddess’s pose, body type, hairstyle,

and nudity are uniquely Nubian. The voluptuous curves of her

breasts, abdomen and thighs suggest fertility, rebirth and

resurrection—all believed to be powerful attributes in Nubian culture

in this life and the next.

While Egyptian jewelry is typically composed of materials that

reflect the tri-color palette (orange-red, blue and green) established

early in Egyptian history, the Napatans preferred exotic stones and

materials, including shimmering blue chalcedony from Turkey,

amethystine-quartz from the Eastern desert and malachite from the

Sinai peninsula. Queen Khensa, the sister-wife of Piankhy, appears to

have had an interest in mineralogy, as her tomb contained a

collection of polished rock specimens such as agate, travertine, green-

glazed limestone, and carnelian. There was also an assemblage of

round flint pebbles resembling marbles and a group of natural stones

with multiple lobes; one was deemed so special it was wrapped with

gold wire. It is likely the stones in Khensa’s tomb were imbued with a

particular importance or meaning, like those in a similar group,

described as a “ritual deposit,” discovered at the site of a Napatan

temple at Gebel Barkal. The addition of text could also enhance the

amuletic potential of certain stones and natural substances. A small

steatite orb that belonged to Queen Khensa, decorated with six

vertical bands of incised hieroglyphs, would have been intended to

place the queen under the protection of the powerful Amen, while

the cartouches carved on the sphere with her names and titles would

have ensured her well-being and immortality. Similarly, an imitation

snail shell of steatite belonging to Queen Khensa is inscribed with a

wraparound dedication meant to bring its owner health, stability and

good luck in perpetuity.

Napatan royal sculpture and iconography draw from both

Egyptian and local features. Kings are represented in a deliberately

archaizing style, with their poses, kilts and slim, muscular physiques

copying Egyptian prototypes from the Old Kingdom (circa 2550

B.C.). Their jewelry and other royal accoutrements, on the other

hand, are typically Kushite. The preferred style of crown for Nubian

royals was a close-fitting cap with streamers in the back, two tall

feathers on top, and a double uraeus on the forehead. Royal jewelry

included wide armbands, bracelets and anklets, along with neck

ornaments and earrings featuring rams’ heads, the symbol of Amen.

The standard ram necklace was composed of three rams’ heads

suspended on a heavy cord or chain—one close to the neckline and

two draped down the shoulders, as seen in a bronze statuette of King

Taharqa (690-664 B.C.). Although no neck ornament of this type has

survived, a ram’s-head earring featuring a sun disk and two uraei,

37_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 3437_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 34 9/16/14 10:51 AM9/16/14 10:51 AM

from the Western Cemetery at Meroe, indicates that

these ornaments were probably made of heavy cast gold.

Probably the most important Napatan find was that

of King Aspelta’s (643-623 B.C.) pyramid at Nuri. It was

the best preserved of the royal burials, yielding some

extraordinary grave goods, including several objects

hidden from plunderers by the collapse of the tomb’s

roof. One exquisite object is a travertine vessel with a

bejeweled collar, believed to have contained a fragrant

perfume or ointment. The collar or neck is made of

gilded silver with five rows of cloisonné work and a

curtain of double loop-in-loop gold chains with stone

pendants. Unfortunately, the colorful cut-stone or glass

inlays that once filled the cloison cells are missing. The

oval pendants are made of carnelian, amazonite and

magnetite, all minerals imbued with magical powers.

Other precious objects recovered from Aspelta’s tomb

include a gold ewer; six tweezers; a silver milk vessel

inscribed for King Senkamanisken, Aspelta’s father; and

a gold vessel lid with a loop-in-loop chain. There were

also several hundred gold beads and more than a

hundred amethyst beads. Most puzzling are fifteen gold

and gilded-silver cylinder sheaths—vertical tubes closed

at the bottom by a circular disk and open at the top.

These objects are unique to Napatan culture and are

decorated with imagery associated with the Amen cult of

Gebel Barkal, including winged goddesses (Isis, Hathor

and Mut) and friezes of rams’ heads, uraei, lotus

blossoms, and papyrus buds. The verticality of the

decorations indicates that the cylinders were made to be

used or held upright. Some scholars have suggested that

they served as handles for ostrich plumes or staves of

grain carried in ritual processions.

The center of Nubian life moved further south

towards modern Khartoum around the third century

B.C. (the Meroitic period). Meroitic rulers adopted a

new style of dress and some new royal accoutrements.

They are shown wearing long, fringed robes beneath

shawls adorned with tassels. The caplike crown of the

Napatan period still appears, sometimes with the

addition of rams’ horns and diadems. Kings, queens and

deities are portrayed laden with elaborate jewelry,

including broad collars, necklaces of heavy ball beads,

large pendants, anklets, stacked bracelets, armbands,

earrings, finger rings, and occasionally archers’ thumb

rings (Chapman drawing 1986.173).

The jewelry created and worn in Meroe was less

influenced by Egypt and often includes representations

of Nubian deities such as the leonine warrior god,

Apedemak. Ram-headed depictions of Amen-Re, often

AMETHYSTINE QUARTZ PENDANT in the form of a miniature libation vessel, 3.5 centimeters, Napatan Period. BLUE CHALCEDONY AMULET

of Thoth as a baboon, 3 centimeters, Napatan Period. GOLD RAM’S-HEAD, 3 centimeters, Napatan Period. Head earrings were royal

adornments in Napatan and Meroe. Opposite page: FAIENCE AMULET of winged goddess, 9 centimeters, Napatan Period. The pose,

voluptuous body, hairstyle and nudity of this goddess make her distinctively Nubian. MALACHITE AND GILDED SILVER AMULET, 5.4 centimeters,

Napatan Period. Maat, goddess of truth and cosmic order, appears on this amulet found in one of the tombs of King Piankhy’s queen.

SILVER RAM PENDANT, 10.3 centimeters, Napatan Period. This pedestal of the sphinx with a ram’s head is decorated in symbolic Egyptian

colors adopted by the Napatans.

35

O

RN

AM

EN

T 3

7.4

.20

14

37_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 3537_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 35 9/16/14 10:51 AM9/16/14 10:51 AM

combined with other gods and goddesses, were also popular. Amulets

and beads, fabricated from gold, silver, hardstone, faience, and glass

were produced in large numbers and worn strung around the neck

and wrist. Among the many types of necklaces worn in Meroe are

examples made of individual bead-like elements that skillfully

combine seemingly disparate images, such as rams with double uraei

and sun disks surmounted by the heads of goddesses. Enameling was

developed to a high degree and certain techniques found in jewelry,

including champlevé, repoussé, en plein sur fond reserve, and plique à

jour appear for the first time during this period. An outstanding

example of the use of multiple techniques in a single jewel is a

bracelet from a queen’s burial at Gebel Barkal. It has a broad area of

fused glass framing a raised gold appliqué of a seated Hathor. The

image of Hathor was once covered with a reddish brown enamel

while green, blue and brown (once red) enamels fill the spaces

between the raised gold strips and diamond shapes.

A number of earring styles prevailed in Meroe—disk-shaped ear

studs; ram-head studs; wire hoops with pendants; and cast

penannular (with a small gap) earrings. Some depict protective

household deities, such as Hathor and Bes. Others resemble ear

ornaments from the ancient Greek world. Once believed to be

imports, scientific analyses indicate these were actually made locally.

Nubian earrings typically bear images of deities and religious symbols

that were intended to protect the wearer. An example is a Double

Hathor-head earring depicting a papyrus blossom (symbol of

fertility) surmounting two Hathor heads and four pendants

terminating in lotus flowers (symbols of regeneration). Other

earrings are purely decorative as exemplified by a circular stud with

gold filigree and colored enamel decoration.

Also popular in Meroe were finger rings that were sometimes

worn in multiples and occasionally stacked on one finger, a fashion

fad in the Roman world. The most common rings were precious

metal signets cast in three-part molds. These rings often have high

bezels with engraved images of deities on the flat plane. Other rings

were three-dimensional, such as a rearing cobra whose hood was

once embellished with champlevé blue enamel. Another, recovered

from an un-plundered burial that also included several silver signets,

features a silver ram’s-head with a double-feather crown. One finger

ornament, possibly an import, is a simple gold band bearing a Greek

inscription wishing good fortune to the wearer.

The glass industry was advanced in Meroe. In addition to

enameled glass vessels, jewelry in the form of glass beads and cast

SILVER AND ENAMEL FINGER RING in the form of a rearing cobra, 3.3 centimeters,

Meroitic Period. This ring, once enhanced with colorful enamel, is one of the earliest

known examples of the champlevé technique. SILVER FINGER RING with ram’s head, 3.5

centimeters, Meroitic Period. GOLD SIGNET RING, 1.2 centimeters, Meroitic Period. The

signet ring displays an image symbolic of deities. GOLD FINGER RING with Greek text,

1.8 centimeters, Ptolemaic-Roman Imperial Period. GOLD AND ENAMEL EAR STUD, 3.8

centimeters, Meroitic Period.

37_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 3637_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 36 9/16/14 10:51 AM9/16/14 10:51 AM

intaglios for rings, were prized possessions. Probably the most

extraordinary glass adornments were stratified eye beads. These

remarkable beads have spots or circular rings representing eyes, and

they were believed to magically protect the wearer from malevolent

forces. The most complex eye beads have multiple rings, often in

contrasting colors. The rings are formed by applying a drop of

molten glass to the body of a heat-softened glass bead and then

pressing the drop into the matrix. In the case of twenty-two beads

recovered from a royal burial in the Northern Cemetery at Meroe,

three drops of decreasing size—one on top of the other—were rolled

into the glass as it cooled. These beads also have a unique feature:

crisscrossing gold bands covered or overlaid by a clear enamel. In

creating these ornaments, the craftsman would have first carved into

the blue glass matrix, then set thin strips of gold sheet in the

channels, and finally cover the gold with a thin, protective coat of

clear glass. Imported stratified eye beads, probably made by the

Phoenicians, were known to the Nubians since the Napatan period,

but none of the earlier beads have such dazzling, translucent blue

glass or gold-band decoration. These stunning beads have no known

parallel in the ancient world.*

Archaeologists from the Museum of Fine Arts were among the

first to carry out scientific excavations in Sudan. As a result of their

work the museum houses the largest and finest collection of Nubian

art outside Sudan. The Nubians left extraordinary remains such as

palaces, temples, towns, and cities. Yet, largely because only a small

number of their inscriptions can be understood by modern scholars,

they remain mysterious and poorly understood. We hope that this

exhibition, in addition to displaying the skill and inventiveness of

Nubia’s superb jewelers, will provide our visitors with a glimpse of

the ancient Nubians’ artistic achievements, as well as insights into

their important and fascinating civilization.

“Gold and the Gods: Jewels of Ancient Nubia” is on view through May 14,

2017, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Jewels of Ancient Nubia, an

accompanying book by Yvonne J. Markowitz and Denise M. Doxey, the

exhibition’s co-curators, is published by MFA Publications.

*Editorial Comment: While no other glass beads in antiquity have applied surface

gold, there are Zhou Dynasty composite beads with gold bands buried in the core

(Seligman and Beck, 1938: 44). Engle (1976: 32) also reports gold fragments in the

core of glass beads found in Caesarea.

JEWELED TRAVERTINE VESSEL, 26.5 centimeters, Napatan Period. One of the

masterworks from the tomb of King Aspelta this stone container is ornamented with

a collar of gold, silver and semiprecious stones. GOLD AND ENAMEL BRACELET with

image of Hathor, 5.7 centimeters, Meroitic Period. Nubian craftsmen were masters

of multiple sophisticated enameling techniques. BRONZE STATUETTE of Taharqa,

reign of Taharqa, 22 centimeters, Napatan Period. GOLD AND ENAMEL EAR STUD,

3.8 centimeters, Meroitic Period.

37

O

RN

AM

EN

T 3

7.4

.20

14

37_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 3737_4_Nubian Jewelry-11.indd 37 9/16/14 10:51 AM9/16/14 10:51 AM