Girdle with gold and lapis wallet-shaped beads

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This hip belt, or girdle, belonged to one of three foreign wives of Thutmose III. It is generally accepted that the larger "wallet" beads of gold and lapis lazuli are stylized cowrie shells. Such beads were popular in the Middle Kingdom and symbolized fertility.

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