Stone carvers made simple and fancy beads for jewellery. They bored and ground semi-precious stones to shape. Although people wore it for adornment, as people wear it today, a lot of jewellery had magical significance to protect the wearer from harm. Amulets or the stone itself were believed to give protection.

These beads are made from carnelian, which was associated with the sun. Carnelian was quite readily available in Egypt.