Really Metallic Wood Boring Beetles
How about another post that links archaeology and entomology? While in New England for the Christmas and New Year's holidays, Leon and I took an afternoon in Boston to visit the Museum of Fine Arts. One object in particular caught my eye. This necklace was excavated by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts expedition to Giza. It was found in the coffin of Impy, who was the chief royal architect during the reign of Pharaoh Pepy II. Pepy II ruled from about 2278 BCE to about 2184 BCE, and is thought to have been the longest ruling king in ancient Egypt. The piece caught my eye because the oval gold pieces around the outer edge of the necklace are in the form of buprestid (metallic wood boring) beetles.
Labels: Archaeology, Buprestidae, Museum
posted by Doug Taron @ 07:51
9 Comments:
How neat!
I understand Impy and Pepy were known for their wild and crazy parties. :-)
Actually, it makes sense that an architect would have images of wood borers hanging around his neck like amulets to ward off their attack.
That's cool!
What species were they?
:)
Yup, you can't get more metallic than that.
Impy and Pepy? Is this Saturday morning cartoon archaeology?
please bring it to Key West next month.
Have you heard about the artist who is creating art work form the actual beetles? Saw him on CBS Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago. Can't remember his name but the art and the beetles were beautiful and so colorful!
Hi, I'm from Malaysia and in some places I've seen people sell jewellery made from the wing cases of jewel beetles :) Its really neat by the way that these are gold in colour
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