Ear ornament. Green faience. These were worn in the large holes in the ear lobe. (New Kingdom 1550-1069 BC)

Ear plug, geen faience, New Kingdom. This is spool shaped with a groove running around the circumference between the two sides. Mummies with enormous holes in their ear lobes have been excavated. One side is convex and the other flat. A gold type was found in a royal tomb at Amarna. See Berman, L.M., 1999.'catalogue of Egyptian Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art'. for a similar piece and further references. Also Brovarski et al. 1982. 'Egypt's Golden Age. The Art of Living In The New Kingdom' . The Museum of Fine Arts Boston p231ff. Capel and Glen (1996:90) wrote: 'Rosette-ornamented ear plugs. . . were worn by women in the late Eighteen Dynasty. The large diameters of such disks (up to 6.5 cm) reveal the extent of the earlobe's distortion. This practice is confirmed by the presence of female mummies with enormous earlobe piercings.'Capel, Anne K., and Glenn E. Markoe 1996 'Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt'. Hudson Hills Press, New York, NY. (90 fig. 27)

Collection

Egypt Centre, University of Swansea

Inventory Number

3543398

Title

Ear ornament. Green faience. These were worn in the large holes in the ear lobe. (New Kingdom 1550-1069 BC)

Object Type

Image

Measurements

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