Hairpin

"Bone hairpins, like these examples found in Egypt, were used by women to hold their coiffures in place. The smooth, rounded shafts taper to a point at one end, and terminate with simple spherical or faceted knobs on the other. One example, no. 14.5.182, is slightly more elaborate, with three molded cylindrical knobs projecting from the head.

Numerous bone hairpins have been found in the sarcophagi of women and young girls, many featuring finials with human busts, hands, animals, as well as geometric designs. A variety of examples in bone and ivory may be seen in Hartmann, p. 41; Paris, p. 277, no. 241; Petrie, 1927, pl. XIX; Strygowski, pl. XIX." -Eunice Dauterman Maguire, Henry Maguire and Maggie J. Duncan-Flowers, Art and Holy Powers in the Early Christian House (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), 193.

James, T.G.H. Excavating in Egypt: The Egypt Exploration Society 1882-1982. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Maguire, Eunice Dauterman, Henry Maguire and Maggie J. Duncan-Flowers. Art and Holy Powers in the Early Christian House. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.


The British Museum. Antinoupolis at the British Museum Online Catalog. https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/antinoupolis.aspx

Griffith Institute Archives, University of Oxford. John de Monins Johnson photographic negatives. http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/4johnson.html