An Iconographical Study and Iconological Interpretation of the Jewellery of Three Ancient Egyptian Royal Women of the 12th Dynasty

Abstract

This study aimed to identify unique aspects present in the jewellery collections of three royal women, namely Princesses Khnumet, Sit-Hathor, and Mereret. This was done by using the four phase methodology of Van Straten (1994:4), which was applied to the three jewellery collections excavated at Dahshur, dating to the 12th Dynasty. The first phase was discussed in Chapter 2, which identified the materials, colours, and techniques that were present in each jewellery piece under discussion. The second phase (Chapter 3) dealt with the symbolic significance of the colours and symbols identified at first glance to be present on the jewellery pieces. In Chapter 4, the third phase was discussed with the use of iconographical themes, that were created based on semantic domains, in order to identify an iconographical theme that represented a jewellery piece in its entirety. In Chapter 5, the fourth phase made use of the historical, cultural, and social background of the 12th Dynasty, to determine the possible influences that could have affected the design of a jewellery piece. Lastly, in Chapter 6, the discussion incorporated the individual jewellery pieces as a collection, and identified how certain aspects were recurringly present in multiple jewellery pieces. It was also possible to determine if some aspects of a woman could be regarded as a unique occurrence in relation to the other women under discussion. In conclusion, one can therefore deduce from this study how each woman might have been inclined towards certain aspects when building her collection of jewellery pieces.