Fashion Atef Crown Statement Drop Earrings Earrings

These eye-catching earrings pay tribute to a pair of remarkable gold, stone, and glass earrings (3rd–2nd century B.C.) from Hellenistic Greece in the Museum’s holdings. Egyptian influences became fashionable in Greek jewelry during Egypt’s Ptolemaic reign (323–31 B.C.), as exemplified in some of the detailing on these spectacular adornments in The Met collection. Among their many components is an Egyptianized atef crown—a tall headdress typically worn by the god Osiris—made of a sun disk in a translucent stone surmounted by twin feathers of opaque black-and-white glass; and a heart-shaped pendant with a red stone, bordered by a black-and-white sawtooth design.