Bead with Name of King Amenemhat (Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, about 1985–1777 BCE): Artwork and History

Bead with Name of King Amenemhat (Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, about 1985–1777 BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Egyptian.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Carved from carnelian, this spherical bead is incised with a cartouche, a protective ring that encircled a king’s name in ancient Egyptian writing. The small hieroglyphs written from right to left inside this cartouche read “Amenemhat,” a name that means “[the god] Amun is in front.” Many ancient Egyptians had multipart names that incorporated a god or goddess’s name, sometimes indicating a personal affinity with them. This bead names one of four kings who bore the name Amenemhat during Egypt’s 12th Dynasty (about 1985–1773 BCE). It has a gold cap at the top and bottom along with a suspension loop so that it can be strung and worn as part of a necklace or other jewelry.

Object facts

• Title: Bead with Name of King Amenemhat
• Date: Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, about 1985–1777 BCE
• Artist attribution: Egyptian
• Place of origin: Egypt
• Medium: Carnelian and gold
• Dimensions: 1.9 × 1.4 × 1.4 cm (3/4 × 9/16 × 9/16 in.)
• Type: Costume and Accessories
• Department: Arts of Africa
• Reference number: 1892.23

Collection credit

Gift of Henry H. Getty and Charles L. Hutchinson

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.