Necklace with beads and seven amulets
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Links to other views:⇒ Larger Viewif scripting is off, click the ⇒ instead. Links to others from 3rd Intermediate PeriodBronze of Sakhmet seated, Dyn. 20-23Horus-the-Child, 1070-774 BC Mummy bead net, Dyn. 25-31 Mummy bead net, Dyn. 25-31 Mummy bead net, Dyn. 25-31 Mummy bead net, Dyn. 25-31 Mummy bead net with scarab, Dyn. 25-31 Scarab wing mummy net piece Scarab with Goddess Hathor, 1070-656 BC Sky Goddess Nut as a sow, 1085-760 BC Links to others of type BeadApophis coils bead, EgyptBead with zigzag trail and threadhole collars Bead with zigzag trail and threadhole collars Bead with zigzag trail and threadhole collars Biconical millefiori mosaic bead Checkerboard mosaic bead, Roman period Checkerboard mosaic bead, Roman period Chevron glass bead, Venice Compound eye bead, 400-300 BC Compound eye bead, 550-300 BC Compound eye bead with prunts, 400-300 BC Cylindrical chevron bead, Venice Face bead of undetermined origin Four-layer stratified eye bead, 400-300 BC Fustat mosaic bead, 800-1000 AD Head bead with eyes and prunts, 500-300 BC Hellenistic ribbon bead, 200 BC-100 AD Large eye bead with trails, 630-1400 AD Massive chevron bead, Venice Massive trail decorated bead Millefiori mosaic glass bead Millefiori mosaic glass bead Mirror decoration bead, 1000-1200 AD Mirror decoration bead, 900-1200 AD Mosaic bead with four faces, 1-100 AD Mosaic bead with three faces, 1-100 AD Mosaic eye bead, Roman period Mosaic eye bead, Roman period Paired stratified eye bead, 600-300 BC Pentagonal millefiori glass bead Square glass bead with tricolor zigzag Stratified horned eye bead, 500-200 BC Three-plus-four eye bead, 600-400 BC Trail decorated glass bead Trail-decorated bead, 30 BC-400 AD Trail-decorated bead, 332-30 BC Trail-decorated glass bead Trailed eye bead Trailed eye bead Trailed eye bead Two-layer stratified eye bead, 500-200 BC Two-layer stratified eye bead, 500-200 BC Two-layer stratified eye bead, 500-200 BC Two-layer stratified eye bead, 500-200 BC Two-layer stratified eye bead, 500-200 BC |
This reconstructed necklace is composed of multicolored faience beads interspersed with seven blue faience amulets representing the following deities: Isis, wearing the solar horned disc crown and nursing Horus the child, Bastet, daughter of the sun god, as a benevolent cat goddess, Nefertum, god of the primeval lotus blossom, the image of perfection, Ptah, the creator god of Memphis, Sakhmet the lioness, who can both cause and cure diseases, Thoth the baboon, the moon god who inspires wisdom, Taweret the hippopotamus, goddess who protects childbirth and was immensely popular. The owner of such a necklace (probably an ordinary Egyptian woman during the third intermediate period) used it in her lifetime as a magic protection, and hoped to keep it in the tomb, to protect her in the afterlife. Amulet Amulets are objects generally kept on the person that are believed to confer some benefit to the wearer. While turn of the century archeologist Flinders Petrie (1914) enraged that “the belief in the magic effect of inanimate objects on the course of events is one of the lower stages of the human mind in seeking for principles of natural action. . .”, he had to concede that the use of amulets, talismans, and charms is very ingrained in many cultures to the present day. Many of us use lucky pens and wear religious medals without believing literally in their powers to affect our lives. But we still use them. They help us muster the confidence we need in times of self doubt. They empower us to dare, to believe in ourselves, to heal ourselves. Egyptians may have felt the same way. They used amulets on themselves and on their dead. Egyptians also seem to have had a passion for jewelry, and amulets were a good excuse to wear more jewelry. Egyptians created an astonishing variety of amulets. The Dendera Amulets List, engraved on the thickness of a temple doorway, shows 104 different amulets for funerary use. The MacGregor Papyrus shows and names each one (Andrews 1994:7). Petrie described some 270 kinds of amulets in his 1914 monograph on the subject, and yet it was published before the excavation of many sites rich in amulets! He devised a classification system which, for all its flaws, is useful and still stands as no worse than any devised since to put order in that which defies classification: “The various ascertained meanings may be completely put in order under five great classes… (I) the amulets of Similars which are for influencing similar parts, or functions, or occurrences, for the wearer; (II) the amulets of Powers, for conferring powers and capacities, especially upon the dead; (III) the amulets of Property, which are entirely derived from the funeral offerings, and are thus peculiar to Egypt; (IV) the amulets for Protection, such as charms and curative amulets; (V) the figures of Gods, connected with the worship of the gods and their functions… Our classes then are here called amulets of Similars, or Homopoeic. The evolution of amulets follows a fairly logical path. The first amulets were natural objects such as shells, and symbolically charged body parts of animals, such as claws from birds of prey. Then, still in predynastic times, we find figurines of significant animals, such as the hippopotamus, falcon, and jackal. Through the Old Kingdom, there was a development of animal forms with increasing levels of sophistication, and by the middle of the Old Kingdom we find the abstract symbolic subjects (such as the Ankh (sign meaning “life”), the Udjat eye of Horus, the Djed pillar, and the scarab) which remain some of the most emblematic symbols of Egyptian culture. During the First Intermediate Period we find amulets representing human body parts (ear, tongue, hand, arm, phallus, leg, heart...). The Middle Kingdom expanded the whole range of objects and gave the scarab its final form. But despite this considerable repertoire, amulets representing major gods remained rare until the end of the New Kingdom, at which time they suddenly flourished, and became as a group the most prevalent type until the end of Dynastic history. (Andrews 1994) Bibliography (for this item)Andrews, Carol1994 Amulets of Ancient Egypt. University of Texas Press, Texas. Khalil, Hassan M. 1976 Preliminary Studies on the Sanusret Collection. Manuscript, Musée l’Egypte et le Monde Antique, Monaco-Ville, Monaco. ((IV) 89 -1) Bibliography (on Amulet)Andrews, Carol1994 Amulets of Ancient Egypt. University of Texas Press, Texas. Petrie, W.M. Flinders 1914 Amulets. Constable & Company, London, UK. |
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