Berlin

With the research on the Berlin beadwork collection in 2015 an inventory was made of the beadwork and research potential for the study of ancient Egyptian beadwork in general. At the bottom of this page, the images reveal some of the more complex and extremely interesting objects in the collection.

The Egyptian museum in Berlin also houses a small wooden statue of queen Tiye (C14BC) as the goddess Hathor (seen on the 3 images on the left). This headdress shows remains of a tiny blue beadwork on the surface. Our research also addressed the documentation and analysis of the techniques, pattern and materials used in this beaded headdress. This artefact displays an exceptional beadwork technique not to mention the interesting positioning as well as fastening of the beaded fabric onto the surface of the sculpture. Apart from a patch of very fragmentary beadwork, the surface of the headgear also shows impressions where the rest of the beadwork once was placed. In order to be able to conduct the analysis properly the positioning and the remains of thread inside the bead perforations were examined macroscopically.

Some of the research questions were: What is the nature of the imprints on the side of the sculpture? Do these traces reveal any information about the direction of the beading, the pattern or the technique used? Does the material reveal any information on the fastening of the beaded fabric onto the headdress? Is there any thread remaining inside the perforations of the beads or between the individual beads revealing anything about the technique used? The study provided a lot of information on the statue and the results will be published in the near future.