Blue-green faience hedgehog figurine with black spots on elliptical base, both left legs slightly advanced and modeled freely in the round. Back is scored in grid pattern and bumpy to simulate quills. When food is scarce, hedgehogs retreat into underground dens for long periods, to re-emerge only in times of abundance. The Egyptians associated this...
This faience frog amulet was probably placed next to a woman to safeguard her during childbirth. The combination of deep blue and turquoise typifies objects from the time of Amenhotep III. In antiquity, as today, the croaking of frogs was often the first sound heard each morning in Egypt. These amphibians were thus associated with...
The so-called “heart scarabs” had to protect the heart of the deceased. According to ancient Egyptians, the heart contained the intellect and emotions. For this reason, it should have been preserved in the Afterlife as well. Heart scarabs were very popular amulets. Positioned on the chest of the mummy, they usually take the shape of...
This fish pendant represents a Synodontis Batensoda, more commonly known as the Nile catfish, a species of fish named for its black belly. Often worn at the end of a plait of hair, amulets like this one were used by children and young women to protect against drowning. This fine amulet is made of gold...
Scaraboid amulet of a cute little hedgehog. Hedgehogs were common on amulets in the New Kingdom (1500s–1000s BC) and can also be seen on the backs of seals and scaraboids. Although never very common, hedgehog amulets have a long history in ancient Egypt, with their popularity peaking in the New Kingdom. These amulets functioned as...
This group of objects was found in a plundered chamber in Tomb MMA 840, excavated by Herbert Eustis Winlock (1884-1950), an archeologist who worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reached by a shaft in the portico of a rock-cut tomb in the Asasif section of the Theban necropolis. Among the finds were parts of...
Sister goddesses, Isis and Nepthys, stand beside and hold hands with Harpocrates, the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria. Harpocrates stands in the centre, his youthfulness indicated by his nudity and the sidelock of hair worn on his head. He is flanked by Isis and Nephthys. All...
Black stone amulet carved into the shape of the sema hieroglyph, which means ‘unite’ and similar concepts. It is often described as a pair of lungs attached to a windpipe, genitalia, and sometimes both simultaneously. The Sema was often placed on a mummy’s chest in order to give it life in the underworld. As an...
Blue glazed faience composition amulet of Nut, the goddess of the sky, depicted with outstretched wings, but similar representations are also known for the goddess Isis. This kneeling woman is a goddess with protective outspread wings. On her head are cows’ horns and a sun disk, which are elements that could be worn by various...
Faience hedgehog amulet with a white core and turquoise and black coating. Hedgehog-shaped objects of the most diverse types have been present in Egypt since the Predynastic Period. Images of hedgehogs were painted in tombs of the Old Kingdom as decoration on the bows of boats. It was also used in the production of small,...
