Wear History!

The faience beads and scarab are both circa 600-300 BC, and come with a certificate of authenticity.

The design of this necklace is not reflective of ancient Egyptian designs, it is a one of a kind, pure Loewe original. We used a combination of ancient and modern on this piece. It has new deep blue lapis, faceted and smooth carnelian, chalcedony and turquoise along with hand made Bali silver beads that are accented with copper, a hand made Bali silver clasp and a few other sterling silver spacer beads. The colors are typical to what would have been used for ancient Egyptian jewelry. The ancient faience beads are the scarab and on the dangle and you must be careful with them! The scarab is in excellent condition and a beautiful light turquoise color. The necklace is 16 long, the dangle is about 4, and the scarab is 5/8". It looks great with the dangle worn to the side as shown in the picture.

The Egyptian beads used on this necklace are called "mummy beads" because they were often found in tombs. The clay like beads used on the dangle of this necklace are authentic faience, they are the long tube like beads and the little round rings. Faience is a glass-composite glaze made from crushed quartz crystal with amounts of lime and natron, or plant ash which was introduced in the early Pre-Dynastic period. Faience colors are usually earth tone in browns, reddish, greens and blues. According to Egyptologists, most beads were made on an axis, probably of thread, which would burn up during firing, leaving a hole. The disc like or ring and tubular beads were made by coating the axis with the unfired body-paste, rolling the cylinder to an even diameter on a flat surface, and then scoring it with a knife into sections of the desired length. Amulets were coated with a soda-lime-silica glaze. The Egyptians added different metals and oxides to achieve different colors. The glazed composition was then modeled into various amuletic shapes. Faience was used for its association with light and rebirth and not as an inexpensive substitute for costly materials.

The scarab was one of the most sacred amulets to the ancient Egyptians. Amulets are ornaments believed to endow the wearer with the properties they represent. They were first produced in Egypt as early as 4000 BC and were essential adornments for both the living and the dead. Because of the characteristic behavior of the dung beetle - which the scarab represents - it became the symbol of spontaneous generation, new life, and resurrection. It was often worn as a type of good luck charm. Scarabs were the most popular of all the amulitic motifs. The belief was that the scarab offered the hope of new life and resurrection and thus was very important for adornment of the dead. It was also believed that the magical properties of the scarab could be enhanced by inscriptions or pictorial representations on the underside of the scarab.

We are unsure what the inscription represents on this scarab but we are searching to discover its meaning.