From the Third Intermediate Period, especially Dynasty 25, into the Ptolemaic Period, elaborate nets of colored beads were placed over some wrapped mummies. In this example, which covered the head and chest, primarily blue tube beads, but also light blue, black, and a few white and red ring beads, have been woven into a net with a lozenge or rhomboid pattern. This bead net connects three dense mosaics of colored ring beads that depict a face, a winged scarab, and a broad collar.1

The face at the top is outlined with rows of light blue, reddish-brown, yellow, and black ring beads (fig. 1). The flesh is a field of dark blue. The face is very abstractly rendered, with a flat forehead and stepped areas along the sides to represent the ears and the contour of the jaw and chin. The nose and mouth are rendered through brownish-red, geometric shapes; another square of the same color below the mouth may represent the chin. Below, in light blue beads, is a nearly square false beard.^[1] The eyes have long black cosmetic lines. The pupils are cast upward, and the eyebrows curve down sharply toward the cosmetic lines.2

Below the face is a winged scarab, in imitation of the stone or faience scarab that was traditionally sewn to the mummy wrappings (fig. 2). Like its faience models (see cat. 91), the beaded scarab consists of three parts: a body and two separate wings. It is outlined with pairs of yellow ring beads. The body and wings are composed of pairs of ring beads—the body in black beads on a light blue background and the wings in beads of dark blue. The scarab is rendered in surprising detail considering its medium, including the wing cases (delineated by alternating pairs of yellow and dark red beads), the black legs, the dark blue clypeus (a fan-shaped area at the front of the head), and the red eyes.
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The final element is the broad collar that is edged at the top by rows of blue, red, yellow, black, and light blue ring beads, with additional rows of red and yellow ring beads above a register of yellow lotus flowers alternating with small red floral pendants on a blue background. Below, the colors are reversed, with blue and black lotus blossoms on a yellow background. The bottom of the collar is edged with several rows of light blue, red, and dark blue ring beads. The craftsman clearly had a huge stock of different colored beads at his disposal.4

Typically, figurative mosaics of beads are connected to the bead net, rather than being placed over it. This technique is clearly visible on the Chicago example, where the thread that emerges from the ring at the junction of the tube beads of the net passes through the ring beads that outline the mosaic images. The double-bead technique used for the outline of most of the mosaics perhaps served to reinforce the areas where the net would be attached to them. The outer perimeter of the net is finished. In some areas, the tube beads have rings at their junctures, while in other areas they do not. The construction, with its finished edges, strongly suggests that the piece is intact and has not been cut down from a larger bead net.5

Use and Symbolism of Bead Nets

In a well-preserved example of a similar bead net in Leiden, the beaded face was placed over the wrapped face of the mummy.^[2] That bead net exhibits the more expected order of the different mosaic elements that are represented in paint on coffins—the face and the broad collar above a winged scarab (see cat. 99)—but another example in the Leiden collection shows the same compositional arrangement as the Chicago net with the scarab located above the collar.^[3]6

The bead net was usually placed over the pink-hued (faded red) linen shroud that covered the mummy bandages.^[4] The bead net covered only the front of the mummy and was held in place with ties that were part of the net.^[5] Together, the shroud and net imitated the wrappings of Osiris, hence symbolizing the assimilation of the deceased to the god. The blue beads, which are such a dominant feature of these nets, referred to the goddess Nut, whose body was perceived as the starry vault of heaven and was often depicted as a field of blue that was studded with stars—not too far removed visually from the appearance of a blue bead net with yellow accents.^[6] Nut was believed to swallow the sun each evening and bear it anew at dawn, a cycle that was a metaphor for eternal rebirth after death. The goddess often appears on the chest of mummies and on the interior of coffins as a mother who embraces the deceased and welcomes him or her to the afterlife. Just as the arms of Nut encircled the deceased, the bead net enveloped the mummy.7

Early and Later Bead Nets

These bead nets may be related to bead net dresses found on female mummies of the Old Kingdom.^[7] One of the earliest funerary bead nets was found among the cartonnage (layers of linen, gum, and gesso) on the mummy of King Sheshonq II (reigned about 890 BCE) at Tanis.^[8] By the end of Dynasty 25 and into early Dynasty 26, they had become quite common, as attested by the examples recovered from burials at Thebes (now Luxor), Saqqara, el-Hiba, Abusir, Tanis, and Lahun.^[9] By that time they ranged in size from small, like the Chicago example, to large nets that covered almost the entire body, with many lengths in between.8

Even after actual bead nets were no longer placed on mummies, they continued to be painted on coffins, cartonnage masks, burial shrouds, and funerary figures (see cat. 36), usually on a reddish background to imitate the shroud of Osiris. One net from late Dynasty 25 is made of dark green thread rather than beads, perhaps an indication of its comparatively lower value.^[10] Bead nets have been found on the mummies of both men and women.^[11]9

A bead net in Leiden, which is similar in size and style to the Chicago example, has been dated to Dynasty 26 on the basis of the style of the coffin for the mummy over whose wrapped face it was placed.^[12] The Chicago bead net has accordingly been assigned the same date.10

Construction of Bead Nets

An in-depth analysis of a bead net excavated at el-Hiba and dated to somewhere between the first century BCE and the first century CE has provided insight into the manufacture of these beads.^[13] The faience tube beads were formed around a reed. The lengths of faience were then cut into shorter sections, usually about five to seven millimeters long, and fired, a process that burned out the reed in the interior. These beads usually have a flattened side, suggesting that they were worked on a flat surface.11

The ring beads that make up the figurative decoration were sewn in either singles or doubles of the same color. The double-bead technique was used on the Chicago net to create the relatively heavier outline around the face, the outline of the body and wings of the scarab, and the sides of the false beard. Single beads, which allow for finer detail, were used for the face and the broad collar.12

To create the figurative mosaics, ring beads were placed a half-width distance to the left of the ones above them, creating a diagonal pattern. Beads could be placed obliquely to create curves, especially around the eyes.^[14] The thread passed through the first row and what would form the second row of beads. The thread was then reversed, passing through the second and third rows to secure the three rows in a diagonal pattern (see fig. 3).13

The net of tubes and rings is most often blue, although yellow, dark blue, or pale green tubes and rings were used often as accents.^[15] A single ring bead or a pair of ring beads are located at the junction of the tube beads. The first row of the net was made of a series of alternating rings and tubes. At the end of the row, the direction of the thread was reversed to create the next row, again composed of rings and tubes. When the thread emerged from a ring bead in the second row, it was then passed through the adjacent ring(s) of either the first or third row, joining the strands and creating the net pattern (see fig. 4). At the top of the net, a length of thread was left loose to form the open V that formed the top or bottom of the rhomboid.14

Many bead nets are decorated with faience amulets or pieces of cartonnage, rather than mosaics of ring beads. These added elements were attached to the surface of the net.^[16]15

Provenance

Reverend Chauncey Murch (1859–1907), Luxor, Egypt; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1894.16

Publication History

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 116.
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