String of beads and amulet, Egypt, 2040-1640 BCE (Museum of Fine Arts Boston)

Beads are the earliest form of human adornment. These tiny, beautiful objects have been worn, treasured, and traded since the beginning of human history, traveling across continents and millennia. Made of stones and organic materials, and crafted in almost infinite variations of shape and size, beads were incredibly important in the ancient world. Beads represented some of the first human ideas and concepts related to beauty, identity, and social status. They were believed to hold amuletic powers and were often used to guide rituals and as part of religious practices. As their production became more standardized, beads were commonly used as a form of payment in trade within and across cultures.

 

Beads, Egypt, 2040-1640 BCE (Museum of Fine Arts Boston)

Beads are found wherever humans are found, and their use may even predate language. The oldest known beads made by humans are 142,000-150,000 years old, made from pierced sea snail shells. Archaeologists have theorized that shell beads may be the earliest evidence of human communication and the first known use of symbolism. Beyond adornment, these ancient shells served as symbols that conveyed identity, social status, and other aspects of cultural expression. In short, beads were the first objects to convey meaning.

 

Shell necklace, Egypt, 3850-2960 BCE (Museum of Fine Arts Boston)

As humans evolved and as societies became more complex, people were able to develop specialized skills and roles, including the emergence of artisans. Ancient trade routes began to develop, and raw materials moved towards civilizations that were centers of wealth and craft. Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan (the only known ancient source) was traded through western Asia to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, rare amber from the Baltic moved along trade routes to Mycenaean Greece, and glass beads from Egypt were traded by Roman and Phoenician seafarers. Along these long-distance trade routes, beads made of precious materials were portable, valuable, and easily identifiable forms of currency.

 

Collection of Prehistoric, Egyptian, Cypriot and Near Eastern Antiquities from the tholos tombs of Mycenae, 14th-13th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

One of the most extraordinary collections of beads found in the ancient world was excavated from the Royal Cemetery of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia. Over 4,500 years ago, Queen Puabi was buried with an array of gold jewelry, including large lunate earrings and beads in the form of necklaces, belts, and an elaborate beaded cape or cloak. The cape contains over 80 strands of tens of thousands of beads made from only five raw materials (lapis, carnelian, agate, gold, and silver, none of which were available locally) combined in a seemingly endless variety of patterns. The high quality of the bead cutting and polishing, and the sheer quantity that were produced of a consistent size and shape, demonstrates the sophistication of the ancient Sumerian jewelers. Most of the shapes of these beads—round, tubular, biconical, and others—are still common today.

Cape of Queen Puabi, Ur, 2600-2450 BCE, Penn Museum (photo by Alexis Menten)

A large quantity of some 8,700 beads were also excavated from the ancient site of Troy, dating from 2500-2300 BCE. Unlike the beads from Ur, the Troy beads are mostly made of gold rather than stone and were found in a wide variety of different shapes and sizes. For example, the necklace below alone has 336 beads representing 11 different types.

 

Beaded necklace, Northeast Aegean, 2400 BCE (Penn Museum)

For over 3000 years, the ancient Egyptians adorned themselves with beads as important symbols and protective talismans. Beads were woven into bracelets, chokers, and anklets. Intricate broad collars, like those shown below, were made of multiple strands of small stone beads, most often lapis lazuli, carnelian, and turquoise, alongside gold. The ancient Egyptians valued these stones because their colors symbolized the important elements of the Egyptian world: turquoise symbolized the green fertility of the earth, carnelian symbolized blood as the source of life, lapis the sky, and gold the sun. These colors were so important that the ancient Egyptians invented a material called faience (a precursor to glass) to resemble stones such as turquoise and lapis.

 

Broad collar of Senebtisi (faience, gold, carnelian, turquoise), Egypt, ca. 1850–1775 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Broad Collar of Wah (faience), Egypt, ca. 1981–1975 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Although often beads were used in quantity in ancient jewelry, as the collars above demonstrate, unique and significant beads were made into jewelry in Egypt and across the ancient world. For example, a sweret bead from ancient Egypt is a long carnelian tubular bead that was placed at the throat of a mummy. Typically carved with the deceased’s cartouche to preserve their name in the afterlife, these beads were powerful amulets. In addition, engraved beads, rare and valuable stones such as the banded agate, or older heirloom beads from other cultures and eras were passed down and remade into prominent pieces.

 

Sweret Bead on Gold Wire, Egypt, ca. 1479–1425 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Bead with Name of King Amenemhat, Egypt, ca. 1985–1777 BCE (Art Institute of Chicago)

Pendant with agate bead, Cyprus (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations influenced the Minoan and Mycenaean Greek goldsmiths and artisans, and gemstones were imported to Greece from Western Asia and Egypt. Ancient jewelry from the Mycenaean period typically features stylized objects that symbolized nature and the gods. For example, the amphora, the grape cluster, and other symbols of abundance were believed to invoke the powers of the gods and confer prosperity on the wearer.

 

One of the most common and enduring type of bead that references the natural world is today called the melon bead. Scholars theorize that originally this shape may have symbolized the lotus, a sacred symbol in the ancient Near East and Egypt. In the ancient Egyptian creation myth, a lotus emerged from the primordial waters and opened to reveal the sun god at the birth of the cosmos. In Egyptian jewelry, the lotus was often represented while open in a fan shape. However, the lotus bud was also depicted tightly closed, which could be the origin of the melon bead design.

String of Melon Beads, Palace of Amenhotep III, Egypt, ca. 1390–1352 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Both symbols represent the cycle of life and rebirth, as the closed lotus bud reopens each day with the rays of the sun. Intriguingly, the pendant below includes both forms of the lotus – the melon bead that may have represented the closed lotus at the top with the open lotus shown fanning out at the bottom.

 

Lotus pendant with two Egyptianizing heads attached, plus a melon bead, Egypt, 332–30 BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Ancient Greek and Roman jewelry also featured beads of many shapes, including melon beads. Many of these beads had amuletic properties believe to impart healing or protective powers. This melon bead is made of rock crystal (quartz), one of the oldest gemstones and a symbol of clarity.

Pendant, Greek, 4th century BCE (National Archaeological Museum of Taranto)

The omphalos at Delphi, a marble carved stone that for Greeks symbolized the “navel of the world” where all life began, also references the shape of the melon or lotus bead. The omphalos stone was one of the most important and sacred artifacts of ancient Greece. The relief carvings on the stone depict a woolen mesh decorated with semiprecious stones, which resemble strands of melon beads. Omphalos (or navel) stones are found across the ancient world, including at Karnak and Thebes in ancient Egypt, where they took different shapes but also held sacred meaning.

 

Omphalos of Delphi, Greece (Archaeological Museum of Delphi)

The use of beads in jewelry is part of a tradition as old as human history. Even today, we still wear beads as adornment, use them to guide spiritual practice (such as rosaries, prayer beads, mala beads), and recognize them as powerful symbols and talismans. It is astonishing to think that such a tiny object can carry so many layers of history and meaning.