Five Egyptian & Levantine Stone & Faience Amulets - Frog, Falcon

Egypt, Late Dynastic to Roman period; Levant, Late Bronze Age. A group of five miniature amulets, small enough to hold in a cupped palm. The largest is a frog carved from green diorite and attributed to the Levant. It squats compactly, its rounded back worn smooth by handling. The four Egyptian amulets are made of pale green faience and greenstone. A papyrus column has a suspension loop at the top of its shaft. An udjat eye is pierced for stringing. A tiny cluster of grapes is moulded with knobbed berries. A greenstone falcon is shown perched and in profile. Each piece was likely worn on a cord or placed among the wrappings of the dead. Together they gather the period's main protective motifs: renewal, healing, flourishing growth, abundance, and royal and divine protection. Each motif carried a specific meaning. The udjat, or Eye of Horus, recalls the god's eye, which was torn out in his struggle with Seth and then restored. It became the most common Egyptian charm for wholeness and healing. The papyrus column (wadj) shares its name with the word for 'green' and 'to flourish,' so it promised lasting vigor. The falcon is the form of Horus, protector of kingship. Because the frog spawns in huge numbers from the Nile mud, it was linked with the goddess Heqet, with fertility, and with rebirth, and it appears in Levantine glyptic and amulets as well. Grape-cluster amulets are less common. They probably refer to abundance and to the wine offered in cult and at the tomb. Item # 204924

Estimate:£302.69

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