Necklace

The necklace consists of 185 small faience beads of rounded and cylindrical shapes strung into a long strand. The object is made of faience, an artificial material based on quartz sand, whose surface was covered with a coloured glaze after firing. Originally, the beads may have had more pronounced blue, green, or turquoise hues, characteristic of decorative ornaments of ancient cultures of the Near East and the Mediterranean.

The necklace is arranged in three strands of different lengths.

Similar ornaments were a common element of dress and also served an apotropaic function. Necklaces were worn by both women and men, while some examples were used as grave goods. The production of large numbers of identical beads indicates well-developed craft traditions and mastery of the complex technology of faience manufacture.

Provenance: The object was donated to the museum by P. P. Bobrovskyi in 1907.