This was described as a bracelet when it was acquired by the Museum in 1869 but it is more likely to be a child’s anklet. The loose pendant bells, always of an odd number, served the double purpose of allowing the infant’s mother to keep track of its location while simultaneously scaring away any evil spirits. Bells were rarely attached to stiff bracelets of this shape.

Anklets similar to this were worn over a wide area, but the facetted polyhedral ends are characteristic of many kinds of jewellery worn by the tribal populations of North Africa, Syria and Arabia. This example was acquired in Cairo and described as ‘Modern Egyptian’.