Middle Kingdom jewellery

The outstanding Middle Kingdom jewellery, entirely or partially made in cloisonné work, and often containing colourful beads of different materials to produce amazing polychrome effects and surface textures, also includes the earliest examples in Egypt of granulation. Many of these techniques are illustrated through the study of gold objects excavated at sites throughout Egypt: Haraga, Riqqa, Abydos, Lahun and Naqada. Jewellery items, gold foils and gilded artefacts were analysed with a view to comparing the alloys used for the production of these different sorts of objects.