The central motif in this gold cloisonne pectoral is
a scarab of translucent greenish yellow chalcedony
that serves as the body of a falcon with wings
outstretched. It has the forelegs of a scarab and
falcon's legs of gold. In both talons it grasps the
hieroglyphic sign
shen and in one an open
lily, in the other a lotus flower and buds.
Bordering this motif on each side is a cobra with
the sun's disk on its head and a long tail extending
upwards to form an outer frame for the tops of the
falcon wings. A band of blue and red disks stretches
from one cobra to the other beneath the winged
scarab.
In Egyptian symbolism the sun-god could be
represented both as a scarab and as a falcon.
Composite forms of two related symbols were common
in Egyptian iconography as a way of indicating two
originally separate conceptions that had been fused
in the course of time.
The designer of this pectoral, having produced a
twofold symbol of the sun, repeated the technique,
but less effectively, in the case of the moon. Above
the winged scarab, supported by its front legs and
the tips of its wings, is a gold bark, its hull
inlaid in the center with turquoise. That it is the
bark of the moon is shown by the left "Eye of
Horus,"
which was one of the symbols of the moon. Two cobras
with sun's disks flank the eye, perhaps as symbols
of Upper and Lower Egypt, on both of which the moon
shines. The eye alone would have been enough to
indicate that the bark belonged to the moon, but the
artist has added to it the disk and crescent of the
moon. The disk is appropriately made of silver, and
applied to its surface are small golden figures of
the ibis-headed moon-god
Thoth, the king, and
Ra-Harakhty.
Thoth and the king wear the moon's disk and crescent
and Ra-Harakhty wears the sun's disk with uraeus.
As a kind of fringe at the base of the pectoral
are the blue lotus flowers, complex buds, and
papyrus flowers projecting from poppy buds, all
separated at the point where the stem joins the
flower or the bud by roundels of concentric circles.
This pectoral is inlaid with carnelian, lapis
lazuli, calcite, obsidian (?), turquoise, and red,
blue, green, black and white glass.