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Elite Egyptian people once elaborately styled their hair or wore costly wigs to show their status. To further beautify their locks, women and men alike wove or sewed ornaments into their wigs or onto textiles draped over them. While most historical Egyptian wigs disintegrated over centuries, sculptures and friezes show how people wore these shining ornaments. Made from silver, curved sidelock pendants attached to braid ends or dangled on the forehead. Also of silver, tubes slid over braids or sectioned hair. Floral rosettes could have been sewn throughout, adding visual interest and reflecting the light with their faceted surfaces. While acquired together, these ornaments weren’t necessarily part of a set.
Page data
- Page
- 1
- Source index
- 0
- Type
- photo
- Media ID
- 71436507ba19c14b
- Size
- unknown
Document data
- ID
- 94449
- Core
- obj
- Type
- object
DTO data
{
"id": "94449",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Sidelocks and Elements of Wig Decoration",
"description": "Elite Egyptian people once elaborately styled their hair or wore costly wigs to show their status. To further beautify their locks, women and men alike wove or sewed ornaments into their wigs or onto textiles draped over them. While most historical Egyptian wigs disintegrated over centuries, sculptures and friezes show how people wore these shining ornaments. Made from silver, curved sidelock pendants attached to braid ends or dangled on the forehead. Also of silver, tubes slid over braids or sectioned hair. Floral rosettes could have been sewn throughout, adding visual interest and reflecting the light with their faceted surfaces. While acquired together, these ornaments weren’t necessarily part of a set.",
"date": "1980–1801 BCE",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1914.795",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
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"Q79474885"
],
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"Jewelry"
],
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"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.795/1914.795_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Average: 1 cm (3/8 in.)",
"cul": [
"Egypt, Middle Kingdom (2040–1648 BCE), Dynasty 12"
],
"accession": "1914.795"
}
Context sent to Scholar
Document identity
{
"localId": "94449",
"label": "Sidelocks and Elements of Wig Decoration",
"core": "obj",
"dtoType": "object"
}
Document source metadata
{
"id": "94449",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Sidelocks and Elements of Wig Decoration",
"description": "Elite Egyptian people once elaborately styled their hair or wore costly wigs to show their status. To further beautify their locks, women and men alike wove or sewed ornaments into their wigs or onto textiles draped over them. While most historical Egyptian wigs disintegrated over centuries, sculptures and friezes show how people wore these shining ornaments. Made from silver, curved sidelock pendants attached to braid ends or dangled on the forehead. Also of silver, tubes slid over braids or sectioned hair. Floral rosettes could have been sewn throughout, adding visual interest and reflecting the light with their faceted surfaces. While acquired together, these ornaments weren’t necessarily part of a set.",
"date": "1980–1801 BCE",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1914.795",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
"wikidata": [
"Q79474885"
],
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"Jewelry"
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"thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.795/1914.795_web.jpg",
"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.795/1914.795_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Average: 1 cm (3/8 in.)",
"cul": [
"Egypt, Middle Kingdom (2040–1648 BCE), Dynasty 12"
],
"accession": "1914.795"
}
Document source extras
{
"tec": "Electrum (?) over a calcite gesso; silver",
"tombstone": "Sidelocks and Elements of Wig Decoration, 1980–1801 BCE. Egypt, Middle Kingdom (2040–1648 BCE), Dynasty 12. Electrum (?) over a calcite gesso; silver; average: 1 cm (3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1914.795",
"collection": "Egypt - Middle Kingdom",
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač.<em> Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 174; Mentioned: p. 174"
},
{
"citation": "Ellington, Tameka N., Joseph L. Underwood, and Sarah Rogers-Lafferty. <em>Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair. </em>2020.",
"page_number": "p. 83"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1914.795",
"creditline": "Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust",
"updatedAt": "2026-05-29 05:01:36.426000",
"imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.795/1914.795_print.jpg",
"sourceId": 94449,
"dept": "Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art",
"coll": "Egypt - Middle Kingdom",
"med": "Electrum (?) over a calcite gesso; silver",
"thumbnail_url": null,
"image_url": null
}
Page context
{
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