Does anyone know of the "original" Egyptian coil necklace referred to by a variety of sources.....
Heather, I can’t claim to be familiar with all ancient Egyptian
jewelry, but I have never seen that type of coil (I guess,
technically, it should be called a spiral, rather than a coil) in
an Egyptian example. I don’t know how it got the name,
“Egyptian.”
On the other hand, there are examples of double (and quadruple)
spiral pendants from the Royal Cemetery at Ur (ca. 2500 BC).
However, these spirals are not bent over and connected, as Clegg
and Larom describe. To see nice color photos of the ancient spiral
pendants, see p. 129 of Art of the First Cities (MMA; 2003), ed.
by Joan Aruz (on the preceding page are also nice examples of
equally ancient filigree and cloisonne), or see p. 122 of Treasures
from the Royal Tombs of Ur (Philadelphia; 1998), ed. by Zettler
and Horne.
Maybe someone else knows when and where the earliest examples of
the “Egyptian coil” occur.
Judy Bjorkman