S-hoop earrings with pearls

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

S-hoop earrings are simple in concept: one end of a wire passes through one or more beads and then wraps around the hoop, while the other end of the wire passes through the earlobe. These earrings are examples of a more complex version where elaborate bindings are created where the wire joins the hoop. Other features here are characteristic of the type: a tapered hoop, a hook end that bends back to parallel the lower end of the hoop, and a small fused ball terminating the hook end. The plaster mask 00.2.10 shows traces of such earrings.

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