Broad Collar in the Brooklyn Museum, August 2007

Broad Collar
Blue faience
New Kingdom, late Dynasty XVIII, reign of Tutankhamun (circa 1336-1327 BC), Ay (circa 1327-1323 BC), or Horemheb (circa 1323-1295 BC)
Probably from Thebes
Accession # 40.522

As early as the Old Kingdom (circa 2670-2195 BC), Egyptian artisans fashioned images of gods, kings, and mortals wearing broad collars made of molded tubular and teardrop beads. These beaded collars may have derived from floral prototypes. In antiquity the collar was called a wesekh, literally, "the broad one."

Text from the Brooklyn Museum label.