Artefact – The Archaeology of Ancient Magic & Ritual Practice

Anubis, bronze with gilt, gold inlay, ca. 747-525 BCE, Egypt, Karnak, Temple of Amun 20.8 x 14.4 x 5.3 cm. The Walteres Art Museum, 54.400. CC0 1.0

A Worshipper Kneeling Before the Egyptian God Anubis

Date: ca. 747-525 BCE Findspot: Egypt, Karnak, Temple of Amun (Karnak Cachette) Location: The Walters Art Museum, 54.400 A bronze statuette of the anthropomorphic god…

Inscribed magical brick of Amenemopet

Inscribed magical brick of Amenemopet New Kingdom, Egypt The brick was inscribed with a protective curse in seven lines of Hieratic when the clay was…

Charm against snakebite (?), Egypt, Byzantine-Medieval 6th-7th century, 24.2 x 22.9 cm P.CtYBR inv. 1792 qua, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Coptic Charm against Poisonous Snakes with Satôr Square and Alpha-Leôn Square

This applied Coptic charm against poisonous snakes includes a Satôr square as well as an Alpha-Leôn square. This combination of the Sator square and the…

Solid cast bronze figure of the ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek, Ptolemaic?, Egypt. British Museum, London, EA37450 © The Trustees of the British Museum

The Crocodile God Sobek

The crocodile was particularly feared because not only did it kill, it ate the body of its victim without which there could be no afterlife.…

Pantheistic Bes, ca. 250-100 BCE, Egypt. Walteres Art Museum, 54.540. Creative Commons License

A Pantheistic Bes Statuette

This bronze statuette shows a composite deity who has the attributes of various different gods: the face of the god Bes, the twin plumes and…

Amulet against the Evil Eye, Gold, 2 cm, Roman, ca. 1st - 4th century. British Museum 1814,0704.1172 © The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

A Gold Amulet Against the Evil Eye

This amulet consists of a small disc made of gold. It was stamped with an eye in the centre which is attacked by eleven protectors:…

New Valley Museum Kharga_843_Demotic Dice. From: Minas-Nerpel, A Demotic Inscribed Icosahedron

An Ancient 20-sided Dice Inscribed with the Names of Egyptian Deities

Overview This so far unique dice was made of limestone. Instead of numbers it was inscribed with the names of 20 different Egyptian deities. These…

Knucklebone depicting the deities Baubo, Eros, and Kronos (or Ganymedes), gabbro, late Ptolemaic to the 1st century AD, Egypt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, O.C.428

Erotic knucklebone dice for the search for love, sex and fertility?

This rare knucklebone made of gabbro depicts figures of the deities Baubo, Eros, and Kronos (or Ganymedes) in association with Harpocrates. It is interpreted as…

Gold Amulet of the Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet

The ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet is depicted with a lion head and the sun disc on top of her head. She is flanked by two…

Gold foil pendant amulet of the Egyptian goddess Maat, around 600 BC, Egypt. British Museum, London, EA48998

Gold pendant amulet of the Egyptian goddess Maat

The goddess is seated on a pedestal with the ostrich feather symbol on her head. The ancient Egyptian term Maat reflects a complex concept that…