Pendant of onyx, coral and glass beads with gold plaques on a red cotton cord, Nubia (Egypt or Sudan), 19th century.

Pendant of gold, onyx and coral strung on red cotton cord. The pendant consists of three strands of cotton, threaded with small beads. On each strand is an oval onyx bead with brown and white stripes, surrounded on each side by a square gold bead with truncated corners and two round coral beads. The top two coral beads on the centre strand have been replaced with a single red glass bead with white lining. These three strands join at the bottom to support a small hollow lozenge-shaped gold bead between two larger triangular hollow gold pendants. There is another cylindrical onyx bead between the two triangular pendants. Each of the two triangular pendants has three flat gold drops, with a rim of flattened twisted gold wire, hanging from its lower edge, and there is a matching gold drop hanging from the bottom of the central onyx bead. The hollow gold bead and the two hollow gold pendants are decorated on the front with very fine geometric repousse patterns.

Bequeathed by Edmond Dresden

This jewellery was said to have come from West Africa when it was bequeathed to the Museum in 1904. This was probably a misunderstanding, as this piece, and the others associated with it, are part of the traditional jewellery of women from Nubia, particularly the Bishariya. The Bishariya are a nomadic tribe living in the eastern desert south of the Red Sea, in southern Egypt and northern Sudan.

Unlike almost all other Muslim tribal women, the Bishariya preferred their traditional jewellery to be made of gold, although the designs are the same as those of silver jewellery from the same region. Nubia has been renowned for its gold mines since Pharaonic times. The women expected their jewellery to be made from pure gold as far as possible, although it is often beaten very thin.

This pendant was worn attached to the hair above the centre of the forehead, so that it hung down above the nose.

292-1904