Jewels at the Edge of Empire: An Egyptian Goddess from the Land of Canaan

 by Mary Harrsch © 2025

I'm still working on images of exhibits I photographed in 2009 at The Field Museum in Chicago, IL in preparation for uploading them to Wikimedia Commons and came across these images of this stunning necklace of carnelian and gold from Deir el-Balah, dated to the 13th century BCE, featuring a small gold pendant of the goddess Hathor.

Deir el-Balah lies on the southern Levantine coast, in what is now Gaza. During the Late Bronze Age it sat along the great Via Maris, the land route that connected Egypt with Canaan, Syria, and the broader Near East. By the 13th century BCE, this stretch of coastline had become an important Egyptian outpost—part military installation, part administrative center, and part hub for the movement of goods and officials across the empire.

My research revealed excavations at the site uncovered unmistakable signs of Egyptian presence: Ramesside-style anthropoid coffins, Egyptian pottery, faience amulets, scarabs, and architecture built in Egyptian fashion. Yet these objects weren’t simply imported—they were part of a cultural blend, produced and used by a local population living under Egyptian rule but still deeply connected to Canaanite traditions.

Carnelian and gold were elite materials associated with prestige, diplomacy, and official status. The fiery red-orange beads were almost certainly made from carnelian quarried in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, the primary source used by New Kingdom artisans. Their smooth but slightly irregular shapes are characteristic of Egyptian beadmaking, where each piece was individually ground, drilled, and polished rather than mass-produced. This style contrasts with the highly standardized, heat-treated carnelian beads traded from the Indus Valley in earlier centuries.

The presence of Hathor is also especially telling. As the goddess of music, beauty, fertility, and safe journeys, Hathor was a traveler’s protectress and a familiar divine presence in Egypt’s frontier zones. Her image appears everywhere Egyptians moved—across Sinai, down into Nubia, and along the Levantine coast.

So this necklace represents a snapshot of life in a borderland where Egyptian administrators, soldiers, merchants, and local Canaanite communities interacted daily. Its materials, craftsmanship, and iconography reflect a world where political power, religious symbolism, and cultural exchange flowed freely along the edges of pharaoh's domain.

This piece was loaned to The Field Museum by The Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

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