Each treatment was a complementary combination of practical medicine and magical spells. Indeed for them ".religion was a potent and legitimate tool for affecting magical cures". Like the Mesopotamians, the ancient Egyptians had no distinction between the categories magic and medicine. : 66 Phylacteries containing texts were another common form of amulet. The most common material for such amulets was a kind of ceramic known as Egyptian faience or tjehenet, but amulets were also made of stone, metal, bone, wood and gold. : 67 For example, the common amulet shape the scarab beetle is the emblem of the god Khepri. : 67 Amulets were often made to represent gods, animals or hieroglyphs. : 44Īmulets depicted specific symbols, among the most common are the ankh and the Eye of Horus, which represented the new eye given to Horus by the god Thoth as a replacement for his old eye, which had been destroyed during a battle with Horus's uncle Seth. : 44 After giving birth, a mother would remove her Taweret amulet and put on a new amulet representing Bes. : 44 The god Bes, who had the head of a lion and the body of a dwarf, was believed to be the protector of children. Pregnant women would wear amulets depicting Taweret, the goddess of childbirth, to protect against miscarriage. The oldest amulets found are from the predynastic Badarian Period, and they persisted all the way through to Roman times. : 66 They were used for protection and as a means of ".reaffirming the fundamental fairness of the universe". The use of amulets, ( meket) was widespread among both living and dead ancient Egyptians.
Any given pendant may indeed be an amulet but so may any other object that purportedly protects its holder from danger.ĭjed, wadj, and figures of gods amulets made of Egyptian faience. Amulets are sometimes confused with pendants, small aesthetic objects that hang from necklaces. Amulets can be applied to paper examples as well however, the word 'talisman' is typically used to describe these. An amulet is an object that is generally worn for protection and made from a durable material (metal or hard-stone). Amulets refer to any object which holds an apotropaic function.
Talisman and amulets have interchangeable meaning. Īmulets which are said to derive their extraordinary properties and powers from magic or those which impart luck are typically part of folk religion or paganism, whereas amulets or sacred objects of formalised mainstream religion as in Christianity are believed to have no power of their own without being blessed by a clergyman, and they supposedly will also not provide any preternatural benefit to the bearer who does not have an appropriate disposition. Anything can function as an amulet items commonly so used include gems, statues, coins, drawings, plant parts, animal parts, and written words. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's Natural History describes as "an object that protects a person from trouble".
A nazar, an amulet to ward off the evil eyeĪn amulet, also known as a good luck charm, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor.