Ram Headed Falcon Pendant

Fashioned from gold of astonishing purity (some 99.5 per cent) this petite masterpiece takes the form of a falcon mid-swoop, yet crowned with the curling horns and bearded muzzle of a ram.

In its talons it clutches paired shen rings, emblems of cosmic eternity, while some 300 delicate cloisons cradle slivers of turquoise, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian that shimmer like dawn upon the Nile. The pendant was discovered in the Serapeum at Saqqara, adorning the mummified Apis bull that died in the twenty-sixth regnal year of Ramesses II (c. 1253 B.C.); it now resides in the Musée du Louvre (inv. E 80).

The creature it depicts is no caprice of an artisan but a potent composite of divinity. In Ramesside funerary texts such as the Book of Caverns, the sun-god’s Ba (his wandering soul) is shown as a ram-headed falcon gliding through the underworld, heralding dawn’s rebirth. Texts equate this form with Khnum-Re, the creative ram of Elephantine, whose name (Ba) puns upon the spiritual essence of every living being. Thus, the amulet proclaimed perpetual renewal, an apt blessing for the sacred bull deemed the earthly herald of Ptah and, by extension, of the king himself.

That an Apis should wear so rare a jewel speaks to the cult’s importance. From Egypt’s earliest days the bull’s vigour symbolised both royal potency and cosmic fecundity; by the Late Period, Greeks marvelled that lightning had once sired each Apis calf, identified by celestial markings upon its hide. Yet already in the 13th century B.C. priests were interring these animals with treasures worthy of princes, trusting that such solar talismans would guide the bovine avatar, like the sun-god, through night to radiant dawn.

The remarkable purity of the gold used in the ram-headed falcon pendant (measured at approximately 99.5%) has been confirmed through modern scientific analysis, notably by the Louvre’s research centre (C2RMF) using non-destructive X-ray fluorescence techniques.

This extraordinarily high-grade gold likely originated from Egypt’s rich alluvial deposits in Nubia and the Eastern Desert, where natural nuggets could reach purities of 23 to 24 carats. Egyptian goldsmiths also possessed advanced refining methods, including salt cementation, which removed silver impurities to produce nearly pure gold.

Such refined metal, referred to in texts as nbw nfr (“fine gold”), was commonly reserved for royal and temple use. In the case of the Apis bull, whose burial was state-funded and deeply sacred, the use of exceptionally pure gold reflects both the wealth of Ramesses II’s treasury and the profound religious importance of the cult of Ptah and the solar deity it evoked.

The placement of this ram-headed falcon amulet upon the mummified Apis bull was far from decorative; it was steeped in profound theological symbolism. The amulet represents Khnum-Re, a syncretic form of the ram-headed creator god Khnum merged with the solar deity Re. In Egyptian cosmology, Khnum was believed to mould life upon a potter’s wheel and was associated with the Ba, or soul, of the sun god as he journeyed through the underworld each night. His ram-headed form, particularly when combined with the falcon’s wings, appears in royal funerary texts such as the Book of Caverns, where it symbolises the nocturnal transformation and rebirth of the sun.

The Apis bull, considered a divine living embodiment of Ptah and later Osiris, was not merely buried but ritually transformed in death into a sacred being of the afterlife. By adorning the bull with an image of Khnum-Re in his underworld form, the priests were invoking the solar rebirth cycle, ensuring the Apis would rise again, much like the sun at dawn. The ram-headed falcon, therefore, served as a potent talisman of resurrection, linking the celestial rhythm of Re with the earthly divinity of the bull; binding heaven, earth, and the netherworld in one exquisitely crafted symbol of eternal life.

Summary:

Ram Headed Falcon Pendant, discovered in the Serapeum at Saqqara, adorning the mummified Apis Bull that died in the twenty-sixth regnal year of Ramesses II, c. 1253 B.C.

New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II, c. 1279-1213 B.C.

Now in the Musée du Louvre. E 80