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At UnravelEgypt
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| Unravel Egypt At UnravelEgypt we strive to reflect the culture and the history in everything we supply. We use local craftsperson’s whose has acquired skills that have been handed down through many generations. Our gold and silver jewellery are second to none in quality and price. We support local enterprises and ship directly from our sources in Egypt to cut out any middle men. |
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| Egyptian History Evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society and culture extended far beyond the borders of unified Egypt. The Nile River, around which much of the population of the country clusters, has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along the Nile many thousands of years ago. Traces of these early peoples appear in the form of artefacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. Along the Nile, around 11000 BC, a grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had been replaced by another culture of hunters, fishermen and gathering peoples using primitive stone tools. Evidence also indicates human habitation and cattle herding in the south-western corner of Egypt, near the Sudanese border, before 8000 BC. Geological evidence and computer climate modelling studies suggest that natural climate changes around 8000 BC began to desiccate the extensive pastoral lands of northern Africa, eventually forming the Sahara dessert (c.2500 BC). Early tribes in the region naturally tended to aggregate close to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. More |
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Ancient Egyptian Jewellery Jewelry has played various roles in ancient Egypt. In addition to man's natural attraction to beautiful items, jewellery had a religious and magical significance in the Egyptian ancient world by protecting the wearer from evil. Ancient Egyptians began making their jewellery during the Badari and Naqada eras from simple natural materials; for example, plant branches, shells, beads, solid stones or bones. These were arranged in threads of flax or cow hair. To give these stones some brilliance, Egyptians began painting them with glass substances. Since the era of the First Dynasty, ancient Egyptians were skilled in making jewelry from solid semiprecious stones and different metals such as gold and silver. The art of goldsmithing reached its peak in the Middle Kingdom, when Egyptians mastered the technical methods and accuracy in making pieces of jewelry. During the New Kingdom, goldsmithing flourished in an unprecedented way because of regular missions to the Eastern Desert and Nubia to extract metals. These substances were processed and inlaid with all sorts of semiprecious stones found in Egypt; for example, gold, turquoise, agate, and silver. More | ||
The Jewellery Trail - Egyptian Jewellery The Djed pillar was a popular amulet in Ancient Egypt. It symbolised stability and endurance. The Djed pillar was also associated with Osiris who was the god of the underworld as it was believed to represent his backbone. The Djed is an Ancient Egyptian symbol that is depicted as a column with a broad base and capital (top). The capital is divided by 4 parallel bars. The Djed pillar amulet was an important mortuary amulet. It was one of the most common amulets found on the mummy. It could be placed on the torso, the upper chest or around the neck. The Djed pillar was an important mortuary amulet because it was the sacred sign of Osiris. It was a powerful weapon of magic for all dead Egyptians. It was considered necessary to help transform the human body into the spirit form assumed by the dead in the afterlife. More |
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Scarab The scarab amulet was a very popular and important amulet in ancient Egypt. The scarab amulet was based on the image of the dung beetle, or Scarabeus sacer’. The scarab represented self-generation, resurrection and renewal. This was because of the way the beetle looks after its young. The insect pushes a ball of dung into a hole and then lays its eggs in the dung. This provides its offspring with security and food. When the young beetles hatch they appear, as if by magic, from the dung. As a result the scarab beetle was a symbol of rebirth and so it became associated with the solar cult stories about the rebirth of the sun. In Ancient Egyptian tradition, the scarab was believed to roll the sun across the sky each day. More |
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‘Wedjat’ eye OR eye of Horus One of the most widely worn protective amulets in Ancient Egypt was the ‘wedjat’ eye. The ‘wedjat’ eye represented the restored eye of the god Horus. Horus was the god of the sky and was depicted as a falcon or as a man with a falcon’s head. The ‘wedjat’ eye of ‘Eye of Horus’ is a symbol of the eye Horus lost when in he fought his evil uncle Seth. Horus fought with Seth in order to avenge the death of his father, Osiris, who Seth had killed. During the battle, Seth tore out Horus’ left eye when he was in his falcon form. The healing of the eye has been attributed to Thoth, Hathor and Isis. The restored eye became known as the ‘wedjat’ or ‘healthy eye’ and became a powerful symbol of restoration, protection, regeneration, health and prosperity. More |
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Cartouches and Hieroglyphs In ancient Egypt, kings, and sometimes others, encircled their name hieroglyphs with a design that we now call a cartouche. While we may find it rarely used to enclose the name of non-kings, for the most part, the cartouche's presence identifies the name it encloses as the king of Egypt. A cartouche is an oval ring that is a hieroglyph representation of a length of rope folded and tied at one end. It symbolized everything that the sun encircled and is thus an indication of the king's rule of the cosmos. Later, in the demotic script, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of parentheses and a vertical line. The term, "cartouche" is a relatively modern one coined by the soldiers of Napoleon's expedition in Egypt, who saw in the sign the likeness of the cartridges, or "cartouche" used in their own guns. The cartouche, known in ancient Egypt as the shenu, is derived from the Egyptian verb, Sheni, which means to encircle. It is very similar to the shen sign, a more circular form, and in fact the earliest use of the cartouche in which the king's name was written were circular and identical with that sign. So in order to understand the cartouche we must know something of the shen sign. More |
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Eighteenth Dynasty - More |
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Akhenaton and the Amarna period - More |
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