Buffalo Bone Ankh Earrings | Black

Description
Ankhs carved from natural buffalo bone and dyed black. Carved rather than cast, so the loop and the crossbar are cut by hand and no two come out identically proportioned.

The ankh is a hieroglyph before it is a symbol. It is the sign for life, and in tomb painting after tomb painting a god holds one up to the nose of the dead, which is the gesture for giving breath back. What the shape originally depicted is still argued about: a sandal strap is the most common suggestion and a knotted cord is the other.

It outlived the religion it came from. Egyptian Christians adopted it as the crux ansata, the cross with a handle, and it turns up in Coptic manuscripts for centuries afterward. Very few symbols survive a change of gods that cleanly.

How to Wear It

• Light for the size. Bone weighs a fraction of what metal of the same volume does.
• Bone is porous. Keep them out of long water and away from perfume.
• Good for anyone whose practice runs Egyptian, and for anyone who just likes the shape.

Wear It With
Browse earrings and bone jewelry.

Carved from natural buffalo bone and dyed. Every pair is cut by hand, so proportions and grain vary between them.