![]() In front of the falcon, a rearing cobra wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt is the uraeus protector of the Crown. The feathers and facial markings are finely detailed. This ring was cast through the lost wax method, while the bezel was engraved using iron or copper tools.Īt the center of the oval bezel is the Horus falcon wearing the Double Crown, the symbol of the monarchy’s task to unite Upper and Lower Egypt. Shaw, eds., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology). Electrum and silver were considered more desirable than gold before the New Kingdom, whereas the much redder color of copper-gold alloys was preferred for stirrup rings during the Amarna and immediate post-Amarna period (see pp. Gold of high purity was not easy to cast, so adding silver or copper helped avoid defects due to excessive porosity. Eaton-Krauss in Egypt's Golden Age.Įlectrum is an alloy of gold and silver whose colors vary from greenish-yellow to silvery-grey. Freed, et al., eds., Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, and another from the reign of Ramesses IV, now in the Brooklyn Museum, see cat. For a gold stirrup ring from the reign of Akhenaten, now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, see no. This tradition began at the end of the 18th Dynasty and continued into the 19th. Solid cast stirrup rings replaced earlier seal types with swivel bezels, as the sturdy form better suited the function for which it was intended. As visible by the wear on the oval bezel, it is clear that this ring was used as a seal, probably for royal administrative documents. This fine stirrup-shaped signet ring would have been used either by the king himself or given by him to a high official with the authority to act on his behalf.
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