This small piece of jewellery from el-Riqqeh in #Egypt is made of gold & inlaid with precious stones including lapis lazuli. It is nearly 4,000 years old & has one of the most dramatic stories of any of the objects in our collection!

Continuing our daily thread of awe & wonder…

At the bottom of a deep tomb shaft, English Egyptologist Reginald Engelbach discovered an apparently intact chamber, but the roof had collapsed in antiquity. Careful excavation revealed a coffin containing a mummy – but with the arm-bones of another body lying on top of it…

Within the mummy wrappings, the pectoral - a chest ornament probably worn as a necklace & other jewellery had been partially dislodged. The evidence suggests a tomb robber must have been crushed in the act of rifling for valuables when the roof collapsed

https://egyptmanchester.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/object-biography-4-the-riqqeh-pectoral-acc-no-5966/

Most of what survives from Ancient Egypt comes from the tombs of the wealthy including jewellery assuring eternal protection.

For more stories about ancient Egypt, have a look at our mobile site #MMinQuarantine
https://www.mminquarantine.com/resource-for-home-educators-and-fam

And @EgyptMcr blog: https://egyptmanchester.wordpress.com/