The pectorals of ancient Egypt were a form of jewelry, often represented as a

brooch A brooch (, also ) is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with g ...

. These were mostly worn by richer people and the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...

. One type is attached with a nah necklace, meant to be suspended from the neck but to lie upon the breast. Statuary from the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...

onwards shows this form. A later form was attached as a brooch, with the thematic, iconographic function and statement outweighing its actual use as a piece of

jewellery Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...

for adornment. The thematic statements were typically about the

or statements of ancient Egyptian mythology and culture. They are usually of gold with

cloisonné Cloisonné () is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inlays of cut gemstones, ...

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

s of

gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...

Ancient Egyptian definition of pectoral

The many

determinative A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may ...

s for ''pectoral'' are not portrayed in the

Gardiner's Sign List Gardiner's Sign List is a list of common Egyptian hieroglyphs compiled by Sir Alan Gardiner. It is considered a standard reference in the study of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Gardiner lists only the common forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but h ...

. However, one of the 10 words for 'pectoral', or 'collar' uses the

Usekh collar As early as the Old Kingdom (circa 2670–2195 B.C.), Egyptian artisans fashioned images of gods, kings, and mortals wearing broad collars made of molded tubular and teardrop beads. The Usekh or Wesekh is a personal ornament, a type of broad col ...

determinative, S11, the ''"collar necklace"'' S11. However a similar hieroglyph for the verb "to collar", "to net" shows the relationship between the two Gardiner-listed hieroglyphs T24.

The basic definition of a brooch is as a wide piece of jewellery. Therefore, one form of the 'pectoral' word listings uses the word for "breadth, broad", "to be wide or spacious", the Egyptian word ''usekh''. (Cf.

Pectoral determinatives

Though Gardiner lists only the "broad collar", S11, the following listing of words for ''"pectoral"'' shows the other types of ''pectoral jewellery'' forms that have a Gardiner-unlisted type of pectoral hieroglyph sign: The list of ''Gardiner-unlisted''

s for pectoral: :ari aui-(''none'') (bracelets, armlets) :usekh-(Gard-unl. 1 to 7) (8 is the S11 collar) :utcha-(Gard-unl. 9 to 12) (12 has beads) :babaa-{Gard-unl. 13) ('necklace of beads', pectoral) :beb-{Gard-unl. 13) (a metal pectoral or breastplate, collar) (uraeus headdress (?)) :menqebit-(''none'') (collar or pectoral to which the serpent amulet was attached) :hebner-{Gard-unl. 2 (similar to collar S11)) (collar, pectoral, neckband) :heter-t-(''none'') (a pectoral, a pectoral amulet) :

hkakerit-(Gard. Aa30-used horizontally)Aa30(ornaments, collar, pectoral, head-attire)

:sheb-{Gard-unl. 15) (collar, necklace, pectoral) 'None' may have an alternate determinative used to define the word. From the above definitions, it can be seen that the ''collar, neckband, pectoral, beads, etc.'', can also include

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protect ...

s inclusive into the pectoral's

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

. The above listed words are refenced in E. A. Wallis Budge's "dictionary" to 200 works: steles, papyri, Egyptian literature, personal literature, etc., or the approximate 120 authors referenced.

Statuary with pectorals

Standing statues, or others were sometimes represented with various forms of jewellery, including the pectorals; some are enigmatic in what is being portrayed, whether to gods, or what the symbolism represents.

Famous pectorals; hieroglyph statements

Statements in

Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts which were made accessible to the modern world following the deciphe ...

hieroglyphs A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonis ...

were often the theme of famous pectorals, regardless of their actual use for adornment. One famous complex pectoral for

Amenemhat III :''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat III ( Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth D ...

has a statement of his rulership. The

Pectoral of Amenemhat III Pectoral may refer to: * The chest region and anything relating to it. * Pectoral cross, a cross worn on the chest * a decorative, usually jeweled version of a gorget * Pectoral (Ancient Egypt), a type of jewelry worn in ancient Egypt * Pectorali ...

states the following: :''Lord (of) Heaven, God-Good, Lord of the Two Lands, 'Ny-

Maat Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian: mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and r ...

-Ra', Lord (of all) Lands. : pt-nb, ''ntr-nft'', nb-tawy, ''n-maat-a-t-Ra'', nb-hastw. ('Ny-

-Ra' is Amenemhat III's prenomen name.) Kamrin's modern hieroglyph primer for Egyptian artifacts uses Amenemhat III's pectoral for Exercise 22, Object 3. The discussion explains that the extended wings of the Vulture Goddess relate to "Lord of the Sky"-(pt), the Vulture Goddess, (but also implying the pharaoh is Lord of the Sky). Her translation: ''"Lord (Lady) of the sky Nimaatre (Amenemhat III), the good god, lord of the Two Lands and of all foreign Lands."'' (nb pt n-m3't-r' nthr nfr nb t3wy h3swt nb(w)t)Kamrin, 2004. ''Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide'', p. 84, p. 216.

"Pectorals as a brooch" gallery

File:Tutankhamun scarab1.jpg, hieroglyphs:

ankh Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene. This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphat ...

, basket,

Eye of Horus The Eye of Horus, ''wedjat'' eye or ''udjat'' eye is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion that represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from the mythical conflict between the god Horus with his rival Set, in whi ...

, Sun Disk-(Gard. N5) File:Louvre_-_pectoral_au_nom_de_Ramses_II.jpg, hieroglyphs:

uraeus The Uraeus (), or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra"), ''(plural: Uraei)'' is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. Symbol ...

mut Mut, also known as Maut and Mout, was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush in present-day North Sudan. In Meroitic, her name was pronounced mata): 𐦨𐦴. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian l ...

Djed pillar The ''djed,'' also ''djt'' ( egy, ḏd 𓊽, Coptic ''jōt'' "pillar", anglicized /dʒɛd/) is one of the more ancient and commonly found symbols in ancient Egyptian religion. It is a pillar-like symbol in Egyptian hieroglyphs representing sta ...

shen ring __NOTOC__ Shen may refer to: * Shen (Chinese religion) (神), a central word in Chinese philosophy, religion, and traditional Chinese medicine; term for god or spirit * Shen (clam-monster) (蜃), a shapeshifting Chinese dragon believed to create mi ...

, naos (shrine)
cartouche: adze,

was scepter Was or WAS may refer to: * ''Was'', a past-tense form of the English copular verb ''to be'' People * David Was (born c. 1952), the stage name of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter David Weiss * Don Was (born 1952), the stage name of bass guita ...

, sun disk, Maat hieroglyph,

N-water ripple (n hieroglyph) The total number of distinct Egyptian hieroglyphs increased over time from several hundred in the Middle Kingdom to several thousand during the Ptolemaic Kingdom. In 1928/1929 Alan Gardiner published an overview of hieroglyphs, Gardiner's sign ...

File:Tresor-dahchour-sesostris3-4.jpg,

"Pectorals as necklace" gallery

File:Wedjat (Udjat) Eye of Horus pendant.jpg,

pectoral.
hieroglyphs: Red crown, White crown,

Shen ring __NOTOC__ Shen may refer to: * Shen (Chinese religion) (神), a central word in Chinese philosophy, religion, and traditional Chinese medicine; term for god or spirit * Shen (clam-monster) (蜃), a shapeshifting Chinese dragon believed to create mi ...

, mut vulture, Eye of Horus File:Pectoral of Senusret II by John Campana.jpg,

Senusret II Khakheperre Senusret II was the fourth pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from 1897 BC to 1878 BC. His pyramid was constructed at El-Lahun. Senusret II took a great deal of interest in the Faiyum oasis region and began work on ...

pectoral.
hieroglyphs:

Ankh Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene. This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphat ...

Huh (god) Ḥeḥ (''ḥḥ'', also Huh, Hah, Hauh, Huah, and Hehu) was the personification of infinity or eternity in the Ogdoad in ancient Egyptian religion.Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hud ...

-(=''millions''),

, scarab, Ra, Water Ripple, Sun-rising hieroglyph,

Notes

References

*Budge. ''An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary,'' E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), © 1978, (© 1920), Dover edition, 1978. (In two volumes, 1314 pages.) (softcover, ) *Kamrin, 2004. '' Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide'', Janice Kamrin, © 2004, Harry N. Abrams, Publisher, (''Photos or graphics of 73 Ancient Egyptian objects'' analyzed-(Exercises-(51), Objects)) (hardcover, {{ISBN, 0-8109-4961-X) *Lambelet. ''Orbis Terrae Aegiptiae, Museum Aegiptium'', ''Illustrated Guide of the Egyptian Museum'', Edouard Lambelet, © 1981, Lehnert & Landrock & Co. (no ISBN) Brooches Egyptian artefact types Necklaces Types of jewellery