On the way to the New Kingdom. Analytical study of Queen Ahhotep's gold jewellery (17th Dynasty of Egypt)

Abstract

Abstract The gold jewellery in the collection of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum bearing the names of Queen Ahhotep and King Ahmose I (17th–18th Dynasties, 16th c. B.C.) was analysed using µPIXE, XRF, and SEM-EDS. The items were formed by casting, hammering and rolling, were decorated by chasing, and were mounted using hard-solders obtained by adding copper to the base-alloys. The jewellery bearing the name of Ahhotep is made essentially from cast gold alloys, but the elements of an armband found on the mummy of King Kamose and bearing the name of his brother Ahmose are a skilled goldsmith's work using whitish Ag-rich electrum alloys. The armband and one of Ahhotep's rings with marks of intense wear-use were worn in day-life; the other items could be funerary. The gold employed is alluvial, because the alloys contain PGE inclusions. The composition of the alloys matches the composition of gold grains from the Eastern Desert mines. The analytical data published so far for the scarce Second Intermediate Period jewellery items were compared to the data obtained in this work, showing that the alloys during this period split into two groups: those that are yellowish (containing up to 99 wt% Au) and those that are whitish (containing more than 20 wt% Ag). All the items with marks of intense wear-use except one are contained in the second group. Among them, the armband bearing the name of King Ahmose that is inscribed with the hieroglyphic sign of the moon in its oldest written form. As this change occurred under Ahmose I, it suggests that new and old objects coexisted during that difficult period of struggles in Egypt. Gold jewellery and weapons recovered during the campaigns against the Hycsos, leaded by King Kamose, Queen Ahhotep and King Ahmose, could have also been recycled in Egyptian workshops. This could justify the presence of Os-Ir-Ru-Pt inclusions in the two items with marks of intense wear-use, instead of the Ru-Os-Ir inclusions usually found in Egyptian productions.