Egyptian New Kingdom Faience Hair Ring

$120.05

An Egyptian brightly coloured red faience hair ring. The faience is a pleasing deep orange-red shade, meant to imitate a more expensive material, such as a the precious stone jasper or carnelian. These hair rings were often thought to be earrings, but it is clear that the opening is far too narrow to place it onto the ear lobe or cartilage, thus it is more likely that they were twisted into the hair, or wigs.

Date: Circa 1470 - 1194 BC
Period: New Kingdom Period
Condition: Fine condition.

SOLD

SKU: ES-19096 Category: Tag:

Hair rings were used to adorn wigs and Egyptian hair. The Egyptians wore their hair in many styles, and this helped distinguish social classes. A wig-maker was a professional job in Ancient Egypt, and there is evidence of the use of henna to remove grey hair, and anti-baldness remedies. Finer hair rings were usually made of ivory, jasper and even gold.

To learn more about the use of faience in Ancient Egypt, please see our relevant blog post: What is Egyptian Faience?

Weight 2.0 g
Dimensions L 1 cm
Country

Culture

Faience

Region

Reference: For similar see: Museum of Fine arts Boston, accession number: 24-3-786a

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