Ancient Egyptian religion

 

 

 Amulets in ancient Egypt

 

AMULETS and jewellery that incorporated amuletic elements were an essential adornment wont by ancient Egyptians at every level of society. both in life and in the hereafter; even sacred animals wore them. Royalty, however, were rarely depicted wearing individual amulets: they wore amuletic forms that had been incorporated into jewelery, such as pectorals, bracelets, or bangles. Three of the four words translated as "amulet" came from verbs meaning "to guard" or "to protect," confirming that the primary purpose of these personal ornaments was to provide magical protection although in many instances the wearer clearly hoped to be endowed in addition with magical powers or capabilities. A fourth word meant essentially "well-being."

The amulet's shape, the material from which it was made and its color were crucial to its meaning. Many types of material—precious metal, semiprecious stones, glazed composition in sand core with a vitreous alkaline glaze, glass. and organic matter—were employed in the production of amulets. and most had an underlying symbolism. For example, Iapis lazuli was the color of the dark blue. protective night sky; green turquoise and feldspar were like the life-bringing waters of the Nile River. Green jasper was the color of new vegetation, symbolizing new life; red jasper and carnelian were like blood, the basis of life. Gold represented the sun with all its inherent lifepromoting properties. and connotations of daily renewal: silver was the color of the monthly reborn moon. All those materials could be imitated by like-colored glass. Glazed composition, glaze. or paint. Although a particular amulets material might have been specified in texts. Almost any material. as long as its color was appropriate to the symbolism. could be substituted. 

Most provenanced amulets came from burials or were found on bodies: however. the distinction between amulets for the living and funerary amulets is often problematic. since amulets worn in life for their magical properties could be taken to the tomb for use in life after death.Funerary amulets were made specifically for burials. They were placed on the corpse to give aid and protection during the perilous journey to the netherworld and to supply and supplement the requirements of the afterlife. Ancient sources provide the most information about funerary‘ amulets. The forms of certain funerary amulets were prescribed by chapters of the Book of Going Forth by Day, (Book of the Dead). In those chapters, the material to be used was stipulated. the spell to be recited was provided. the desired result was stated. and the amulet's appearance was illustrated in an accompanying vignette. The Book of Going Forth by Day was placed in the tomb and Functioned as a funerary amulet. since its spells were aimed at helping its deceased owner teach the netherworld and obtain a comfortable life there. Other sources of information for funerary amulets include a list from the Ptolemaic era of 104 amulets from field by W. M. Flinders Petrie was restricted to mummies that were dated to the very end of dynastic times. In the latter twentieth century, however. information provided by modern X-ray techniques on still-wrapped corpses, careful documentation of new finds, and reassessment of existing evidence, constantly add to the current state of knowledge.

Amulets were worn on the body in several ways. A means of suspension or holes for attachment were not essential for funerary amulets since they were often laid on the body. but in rare instances amulets on their original stringing have survived. From the First Intermediate Period, twisted flax fibers were knotted between widely spaced amulets. Two thousand years later, this tradition of stringing survived on the chests of Roman mummies, wont in rows of well-spaced amulets, on flax threads, attached to palm fiber frames. In all other instances, the order of restringing was arbitrary. Depictions of strings of amulets and surviving. still-strung examples show that the living wore individual amulets combined with strings of beads on either gold chains or  wire.Recognizable amulets have been dated as early as the Pre-dynastic Badarean period. some fifteen centuries be- fore the first dynasty. Most take the form of a living creature or part of a living creature (with the part representing the whole}. Though all came from burials, they were in-tended to function as a magical aid to the living and were taken to the grave subsequently. Some, such as a hobbled hippopotamus made of shell and pierced to be worn upside down. were meant to work to ward off an evil or dangerous force by its very representation.