Cowrie Shell Girdle of Sithathoryunet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beginning in prehistoric times, shells were used for adornment and seem to have been fertility symbols. Cowrie-shell girdles are often seen in Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom art around the hips of nude female figurines (see for example 08.200.18). Sithathoryunet's cowries are made of thin sheet gold. Seven are hollow and contain metal pellets that jingle; the eighth is cleverly constructed as a sliding clasp. The pellets would have made a soft sound when the wearer walked or, more likely, danced. The cowrie beads alternate with groups of small beads shaped like the seeds from an acacia tree; when strung together, they resemble the pods from these trees.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art