# @gettymuseum on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CkgP87erJY0
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34227894-gettymuseum-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/09c39d3bae.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-11-03T15:30:45.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Getty (@gettymuseum) — https://gondola.cc/gettymuseum

## Caption

In ancient Nubia, jewelry was worn by both men and women (and sometimes horses!). Blue-green glazed faience was popular. Faience ornaments appear frequently in jewelry from the capital city of Kerma, from about 2400-1550 BC.

The large, ribbed beads shown here are known today as “melon beads” because of their resemblance to the fruit.
 
Faience was eye-catching. The quartz-based ceramic could be molded and shaped, and produced its own bright glaze when fired at high temperatures. It was often combined with beads made from colorful quartz, cornelian, and gold. Faience appliques were also used to decorate clothing.
 
Swipe to see a belt of faience beads framing a central pendant made of glazed quartz.
 
During the Napatan period (ca. 750-350 BC), queens were often buried with faience pectorals (ornaments worn over the chest suspended from necklaces). A popular subject for these pectorals was a lion-headed goddess with wings, as seen in the third image.

​​The kings of Napata took great pride in their horses and adorned them with faience beads. The final image shows an elaborate faience bead net found in a horse burial near Napata. 
 
See these pieces of jewelry, and other examples of faience, in "Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan" on view now at the Getty Villa Museum.

Images:

1. Melon Beads, 1700–1550 B.C., Nubian. Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
 
2. Belt, 1700–1550 B.C., Nubian. Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

3. Pectoral with a Winged Lion-Headed Goddess, 743–712 B.C., Nubian. Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

4. Bead Net, 698–690 B.C., Nubian. Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

#GettyMuseum #GettyVillaMuseum #AncientWorld #Nubia #ArtHistory #History #LA #ThingsToDoInLA #SoCal #Museums #Art

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## Tags

history, gettyvillamuseum, gettymuseum, art, arthistory, ancientworld, nubia, thingstodoinla, socal, la, museums

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