Bodemjuweeltjes/Gems Unearthed

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Museums & Exhibitions

Archaeological jewellery

Bodemjuweeltjes/Gems Unearthed

Published July 4, 2025

Humans have been making and wearing jewellery for thousands of years. In fact, the first non-utilitarian objects ever created by humans were items of personal adornment. When you have been following this blog, you know jewellery is more than decoration—it’s a genuine historical source. Each excavated piece gives us a new perspective on our past and ourselves. It reveals trade routes, cultural connections, social hierarchy, and spiritual beliefs. Bodemjuweeltjes/Gems Unearthed is an exhibition in the Zeeuws Museum, The Netherlands, that discusses precisely these themes – so I had to go and see!

Gems Unearthed: the theme of the exhibition

Gems Unearthed invites visitors to think about these meanings while appreciating the objects themselves—pendants, chains, rings, bracelets, brooches, buckles, and hairpins, some several thousand years old. I appreicated that the introduction included an explanation of what we miss: only what has survived is on display. Metals like bronze and gold, glass, and gemstones have endured, while organic materials such as textiles and plant fibres have largely decayed.

The exhibition also features a strong selection of pieces from the early Middle Ages (my favourite!), a time when it was common to bury people in their finest clothes and jewellery. The exhibition fills three rooms in the museum – so let me walk you through!

Medieval glass beads in vibrant colours against a black background. This photo is part of an article on archaeological jewellery on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Showcase with rings in the exhibition Bodemjuweeltjes, with four photos of gold rings inserted into the image. This photo is part of a blog article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Gems Unearthed: archeological jewellery

The first room focuses on archaeological jewellery. One thing I appreciated was the way the pieces were displayed at different levels, corresponding to their age: older items at the bottom, newer ones higher up – just like archaeological layers. You can see what I mean in the photos above: click to enlarge them to take in the details. It’s a great way to show development over time, and I thought it was well designed. The display levels even use different earthy tones to enhance the layered effect.

However, I’m not sure all visitors will pick up on this… because the room is very dark. Like, well and truly dark. While the jewellery itself is well lit and stands out, the overall lighting (or should I say lack of it) makes it hard to read the explanatory texts on the brochure that visitors receive. The texts on the sides of the showcases, indicating which level corresponds to which time period, are also hard to read.

This room opens with one of the oldest known pieces from the Netherlands: a boar’s tooth pendant dating from around 9000–4000 BCE. The showcases are organised by jewellery type, so you’ll find showcases dedicated to pendants, rings, necklaces, bracelets…I like how the chronological layout helps place them in context, so even when you’re just admiring the pieces, you’ll get a sense of their relative age and development.

Glass chevron beads against a dark background. The image shows how these beads are constructed, and is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Photo of part of a bone, from which small discs have been perforated to serve as beads. This image is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Image showing a brigh showcase with chunky amber beads, and three beads enlarged next to it. The beads were excavated in the Netherlands. This image is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Gems Unearthed: production and craftmanship

The next room is dedicated to jewellery production, and it’s much brighter. I found this section especially interesting because it explains how these items were made, showing techniques and tools that help you understand the craftsmanship involved. It shows moulds and half products, and touches on recycling: this happened quite often in the past. Just one example is a fibula (a clothing pin) made with an Arab coin which was found in the province of Friesland.

There is a selection of stones and gems, including a practice stone for intaglio cutting – every craft needs practising, and this is a piece I love! A beautiful set of chunky amber beads, along with garnets, Meerschaum, jet and more illustrates the range of materials used.

A separate showcase deals with the production of beads: Roman mosaic glass inlays, recycled for their glass in the early Middle Ages, 17^th century glass beads known as chevron beads, consisting of multiple layers of glass (and a few misfits), a piece of bone used to cut out small beads in a monastery…while small, this room manages to pack in quite a few techniques and materials!

Photocollage showing traditional Dutch clasp and head ornaments in gold, against a background of jewellery drawings. This image is part of an article on the Bedouin SIlver Jewellery Blog.

Three gold rings from Zeeland, the Netherlands, and a drawing of a woman in traditional Zeeland dress. This collage is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Photocollage of archaeological jewellery. This image is part of a blog article on the reliabe and fully referenced Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Gems Unearthed: traditional Zeeland jewellery

The third and final room is even brighter and focuses on traditional jewellery from the museum’s own region. I really enjoyed this part! It features a careful selection of local gold and silver jewellery, jewellers’ drawings, and images of people wearing these pieces. There’s also a section on filigree, which played an important role in local traditions. In this way, the last room ties together what you’ve seen earlier: design patterns that go back centuries and a continuing story of skilled production.

Gems Unearthed: an overview of archaeological and traditional jewellery

This is a lovely exhibition: small, but with a lot of beautiful items presented in a coherent manner! The publication accompanying the exhibition is also a delight: a magazine-style publication, offering more insights on some of the pieces shown as well as personal insights by collectors and curators alike on a really wide variety of jewellery-related topics.

The exhibition texts are available in both Dutch and English, so you’ll be able to enjoy the full range of information.

All in all, should you find yourself in The Netherlands, this exhibition is definitely worth a trip to Zeeland!

More on the exhibition is on the website of the Zeeuws Museum.

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The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

Ancient jewellery: Egypt

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Cultures & People

jewellery of the pharaohs

Ancient Egyptian jewellery

What is the history of traditional jewellery in North Africa and the Middle East? Historical context and cultural heritage have left their traces in the traditional jewellery worn in countries as we know them today, and so this blog series takes us back to the distant past. In this blog, I will look at jewellery history in Egypt in very broad strokes: what is the history of ancient Egyptian jewellery?

Jewellery along the Nile

Egypt’s geographical location in northeastern Africa, on the fertile banks of the river Nile wedged in between deserts, has contributed to a recognizable style: while trade and diplomatic contacts brought international influences to Egypt, the country was also isolated enough to maintain its own style. Although jewellery from ancient Egypt seems to be represented well, what we know of today actually reflects only a very small portion of jewellery that once existed.

This is because jewellery of costly materials was often melted down and reused and stones were carved and recarved. Jewellery as is excavated from undisturbed royal burials gives us an idea of the adornment of the elite, while bits and pieces and fragments of faience jewellery tells the tale of local jewellery.

Ancient jewellery: before the pyramids

The use of jewellery in ancient Egypt dates back to early prehistory. When prehistoric communities gradually developed into kingdoms, jewellery was used to express ideology and status. One of the earliest rulers whose tomb has been excavated, is King Djer. He was buried near Abydos around 3,000 BCE, and his tomb is one of the largest of its kind. This was before the pyramids were built. The bracelets found in his tomb are the oldest surviving examples of royal jewellery in Egypt, and share a history of ideology, technology and trade.

Old Kingdom jewellery: the treasure box of the King’s Mother

The Great Pyramid on the Giza Plateau near Cairo was built by Pharaoh Khufu, known as Cheops to the Greeks. The tomb of his mother Hetep-Heres was discovered by chance only a stone’s throw away. A set of 10 silver bracelets per arm, gradually expanding in size so she could wear them from wrist to elbow, were carefully stored in a purpose-made box. They were decorated with butterfly motifs in carnelian and lapis lazuli.

During this period, we also find the use of cylinder seals. These were rolled into wet clay by means of signing and sealing. They take the form of beads and were worn visibly. This type of adornment combines the practical with status: whoever wore these, was able to read and write, and in a position of power.

The use of cylinder seals itself is mainly attested in Mesopotamia (current-day Syria and Iraq), and so these beads also tell us out about contacts and exchange with that region.

Bedouin Silver | Egyptian Middle and New Kingdom jewellery

Middle Kingdom jewellery: princesses and diplomats

The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom (2040 – 1780 BCE) chose Dahshur as their burial site. Here they built pyramids surrounded by other tombs, and in the funerary complex of king Senwosret III the treasure of a princess called Sit-Hathor-Yunet was found.

The jewellery pieces show the favoured combination of turquoise, lapis lazuli and carnelian and are very finely made. Among the jewellery were diadems, hair decoration, pectoral pendants, girdles, bracelets and anklets. Judging by the quality of the workmanship, these are believed to have been created in royal workshops, and are likely to have been commissioned by the king himself.

The find of one such pectoral pendant with the name of king Amenemhet III in current-day Lebanon, and now in the National Museum in Beirut, may even indicate jewellery was sent out as diplomatic gifts or traveled with high ranking Egyptians.

New Kingdom jewellery: the time of Tutankhamun

Around 1400 BCE, Egypt was a regional ‘superpower’. Not just the Egyptian Nile Valley, but large parts of current-day Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria were firmly under the control of the pharaohs. Their span of influence reached even further, as trade contacts were kept with the Aegean world, Cyprus and Mesopotamia.

This resulted in not only an abundance of materials to work with, but in new style influences as well. In turn, luxury goods from Egypt were sent out all over the region. Scarabs bearing the names of pharaohs were exchanged as gifts and propaganda, Egyptian gold was in high demand and local rulers were buried with fine examples of Egyptian craftmanship.

The jewellery of Tutankhamun shows the wide variety of materials used: not just gold and semi-precious stones, but also flowers mixed with gold and faience beads.

A stela of Nubian queen Amanishakheto, paired with a piece of gold jewellery belonging to her

The Nubian kingdoms: jewellery of the warrior-queens

While Egypt has always traded with, and later on conquered Nubia because they needed access to gold, the tables were turned in the 8th century BCE.

The Nubian king Piye, based in Napata in northern Sudan, gathered an army and conquered Egypt. Like the Egyptian kings, the Nubian kings were buried in pyramids, surrounded by lavish grave goods including jewellery. These were all made in an Egyptianizing style and incorporated Egyptian gods and stylistic elements.

Around the beginning of the CE, the Nubian kingdoms had established their capital even further south, in Meroë. Nubian queens ruled in their own right and led a firm resistance against the Roman armies, that had by then invaded Egypt. Queen Amanirenas, who ruled between 40 and 10 BCE, staged a surprise attack on the Roman armies and captured several cities in the south of Egypt.

These Nubian queens are depicted in Egyptianizing style, and always decked out in jewellery befitting their status.

A Fayum portrait from Egypt, combined with a Roman gold necklace.

Roman Egypt: jewellery in an multicultural world

During the Greek and Roman periods, Egyptian tradition mixed with new influences. In Fayum Oasis, elite ladies were buried with a painted portrait that adorned their mummy. These portraits show lifelike images of the deceased, dressed out in their finery.

The people depicted are dressed in Roman style fashion, hairdo and jewellery, and portraits offer much insight into the jewellery worn. Several examples of this jewellery have also been found in archaeological excavations.

Egypt formed part of a long-distance trade network: pearls came from the area of current-day UAE, diamonds, rubies and sapphires were imported from Asia and emeralds were mined in Egypt’s Eastern Desert.

Fatimid jewellery: medieval splendour

Cairo was the capital of the Fatimid dynasty (909 – 1171). The jewellery of this period is exceptionally finely made, using wire filigree and granulation. Not much of it survived, as it was mostly melted down in later periods. Besides in Egypt and Syria, Fatimid jewellery has been found in Spain as well and served there as the basis for later jewellery styles.

The openwork filigree of the Fatimids continued to be produced under the Ottomans, albeit less delicate and in completely different shapes, and so continued into the traditional jewellery of our time.

This blog will continue with the traditional silver jewellery of Egypt.

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Where can I learn more about ancient Egyptian jewellery?

Want to find out more about the history of pharaonic jewellery? The e-course on ancient Egyptian jewellery is here for you: jewellery, hairstyles, dress, fashion, fragrance and tattoos in ancient Egypt explained!

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References for further reading

RAWI Issue 7

Bulsink, M. 2015. Egyptian Gold Jewellery. Palma Egyptology 12, Brepols Publishers, Turnhout

Fletcher, N. 2020. Ancient Egyptian Jewelry. 50 Masterpieces of Art and Design. AUC Press, Cairo.

Jenkins, M. 1988. Fatimid Jewelry, its influences and subtypes, in: Ars Orientalis, Vol. 18

Lacovara, P. and Y. Markowitz, 2020. Jewels of the Nile. Giles Art Publishing

Lane, E.W. 1860. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. The Definitive 1860 Edition. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo (2003).

Markowitz, Y. and D. Doxey, 2014. Jewels of Ancient Nubia. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.

Ancient jewellery: Palestine

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Ancient jewellery, Cultures & People

levantine jewellery history

Ancient Palestinian jewellery

Updated March 9, 2025

What is the history of traditional jewellery in North Africa and the Middle East? Historical context and cultural heritage have left their traces in the traditional jewellery worn in countries as we know them today, and so this blog series takes us back to the distant past. In this blog, I will look at jewellery history in Palestine: the region of Historic Palestine and Greater Syria, which since 1948 includes Israel. What is the history of Palestinian jewellery in very broad strokes?

Ancient trade and historic Palestine

Historic Palestine is situated on the shores of the Mediterranean. Here, trade routes coming over land from the Arab Peninsula and Central Asia connected with those coming from Egypt. The sea routes over the Mediterranean also included Palestinian ports. As in most of the eastern Mediterranean, influences from Western Asia met directly with southern European and northern African cultures, resulting in a pluriform world.

Tell el-Ajjul, near the modern city of Gaza, was one of the principal cities in the southern Levant as it was strategically located on the main route through Sinai into Egypt, near the Mediterranean coast as well as on an intersection with trade routes coming from Syria.

Bronze Age Palestine: gold jewellery and glass beads

Tell el-Ajjul for example was a place where gold jewellery was produced in the late Bronze Age. [1] Here, three hoards were found, which reflect these international relations in their variety of styles. Some of the jewellery items are clearly Egyptian, such as rings with scarabs. Others are based on more local Canaanite traditions, such as the triangular pendant with a goddess, of which parallels have been found in Syria as well as on the Uluburun shipwreck. Several earrings and a crescent pendant are reminiscent of jewellery still worn today.

Jewellery based on Egyptian examples, such as scarabs and other Egyptian amulets is found widely in Palestine from ca 1500 BCE onwards: this is the timeframe in which the pharaohs extended their empire into the Levant.

In Bisan, also known as Beit She’an, over 1,500 glass and faience beads were excavated within a temple site. [2] While the majority of the glass and faience beads were of Egyptian production methods and style, they were strung together with beads and ornaments that referred to Canaanite gods and goddesses.

Silver jewellery hoards in historic Palestine

Besides gold jewellery and glass beads, several hoards of silver have been found throughout Palestine as well. [3] These date from the 12^th century BCE to the 6^th century BCE and tell us a great deal about trade and contacts. The origin of the silver itself in these hoards has been analyzed, and this showed two notable facts. [4]

First, the silver was melted down and reworked several times. This is a custom that is widespread throughout Southwest Asia and North Africa, as precious metals were valuable and reused when needed.

Second, the origins of the silver found in these hoards are Anatolia, the Aegean and, perhaps more surprising, the western Mediterranean – the Iberian Peninsula, or Sardinia. This points to a trade contact from west to east and illustrates the wide reach of trade networks in the late Bronze and early Iron Age.

Bedouin Silver | Glass production Khalil

Glass jewellery production in al Khalil [Hebron] and the coastal regions

Palestine was a major region of glass production during the first millennium CE.[5] Here, glass finger rings, beads, pendants and bracelets were created. Pilgrim souvenirs made of glass catered to Christian worshippers [6].

Glass jewellery continued to be created during the Middle Ages, when for example the use of glass bracelets increased exponentially. Fragments of bracelets are regularly found at excavation sites, but are not often well understood. Their method of production, just like beads, did not change significantly for a long time. This makes them difficult to date: it is the excavation stratigraphy that provides a date for the bracelet fragments. [7]

One of the locations that was famous for its glass production until the last century was al Khalil, also known as Hebron. Here, the glass industry dates back at least two millennia. Glass beads have been produced here as well, at least since the Middle Ages, and a 1799 travel account mentions the coarse glass beads that were created in Hebron and traded to East Africa. Glass bracelets made in Palestine were considered an indispensable part of a bride’s dowry in 1920s southern Palestine.⁠ [8]

This blog will continue with the traditional silver jewellery of Palestine: Bethlehem.

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Find out more about the history of jewellery in the e-course on Ancient Jewellery!

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References

[1] McGovern, E. 1980. Ornamental and Amuletic Jewelry Pendants of Late Bronze Age Palestine. An Archaeological Study. PhD-thesis, University of Pennsylvania

[2] McGovern, E., S.J. Stuart & C.P. Swann. The Late Bronze Egyptian Garrison at Beth Shan: Glass and Faience Production and Importation in the Late New Kingdom, in: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1993-05-01, Vol.290 (290/291), p.1-27

[3] Taha, H., A. Pol & G. Van der Kooij 2006. A Hoard of Silver Coins at Qabatiya, Palestine. Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Ramallah

[4] Wood, J., I. Montero-Ruiz & M. Martinón-Torres. From Iberia to the Southern Levant: the Movement of Silver Across the Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age, in: Journal of World Prehistory (2019) 32, p. 1-31

[5] Freestone, I. C. Glass Production in the First Millennium CE; A Compositional Perspective, in: Klimscha, F. et al (eds) 2021. From Artificial Stone to Translucent Mass-Product. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World, 67, p. 245-246

[6] Schwarzer, H. & T. Rehren. Glass Finds From Pergamon. A Report on the Results of Recent Archaeologic and Archaeometric Research, in: Klimscha, F. et al (eds) 2021. From Artificial Stone to Translucent Mass-Product. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World, 67, p. 181

[7] See for a short excursion into glass bracelets from Sinai for example Shindo, Y. 2001. The classification and chronology of Islamic glass bracelets from al-Tur, Sinai, in: Senri Ethnological Studies vol. 55, pp. 73-100

[8] Weir, S. 1989. Palestinian Costume. The Trustees of the British Museum, London

This is an updated, adapted and expanded version of an earlier blog post I wrote for the Zay Initiative.

The Bedouin Silver blog gives credit where credit is due! Transparent referencing and citing sources helps us all grow. Would you like to do the same and quote this article? Here’s how: