Model faience wig

From: Thebes, Egypt
Date: about 1350-1250 BC

This wig is not real. It is a model which would have been placed on the head of a royal statue, along with some jewellery. It is made of a material called faience which was very popular in ancient Egypt. Faience was made by mixing together grains of quartz and natron (a kind of salt), with other powders to give colour. The mixture was moulded into shapes before being baked, which gave it a hard, glassy finish. Most Egyptians could afford some faience jewellery or an amulet, and blue and green were the most popular colours.