Carnelian was the most commonly used gemstone in ancient Egypt, as evidenced by the countless surviving examples in jewellery and the decorative arts. These include mainly beads, but also inlays (in both jewellery and furniture), amulets, and plaques.
There is, however, a great mystery surrounding this gemstone: its source. The only known ancient mine for carnelian is the one at Stela Ridge, 40 miles (70 km) north-west of Abu Simbel in the Nubian Desert. This site was primarily active during the Middle Kingdom’s Twelfth Dynasty. Although there are faint traces from the Old Kingdom and Roman Period, too, there is no evidence of significant mining at these times.
The question then is: where did the Egyptians get the prodigious amounts of carnelian that they used both before and after the Twelfth Dynasty? It is widely asserted in the Egyptological literature that the source was the wadi gravels in the Eastern Desert, but this is incorrect – as will be explained below.
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