Open source Elasticsearch & Next.js museum search.
Cylindrical Amulet, ca. 1938-1759 B.C.E.. Gold, amethyst, 2 3/4 x 1/2 x 1/2 in. (7 x 1.3 x 1.3 cm). Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 51.226. Creative Commons-BY.
The Egyptians worked with gold and semiprecious stones from earliest times. They mined both types of material in the desert east of the Nile and in present-day Sudan, called “Nubia” in ancient times after the ancient Egyptian word for gold (nub). Clearly, objects made from these high-value materials were available only to the highest ranks of society.