Design Amulet with a Hippopotamus (? ) Head on the Back Pierced for Stringing, and a Left-facing Monkey as the Device

First Intermediate Period

ca. 2150–2100 B.C.

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 103

Design amulets from the late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, also called button seals or figure seals according to their form, were at least in some instances used as seals. They seem overwhelmingly, however, to show devices (base decoration) and combinations of figural backs and base decoration that are clearly amuletic in nature; moreover, at least at Qau, they came mainly from the burials of women and children. Examples are preserved from tombs where they were buried with the dead, sometimes incorporated in strings of beads and amulets.

A recent study has cast considerable light on the motifs and their amuletic significance. Hippopotamus heads were probably the most popular and earliest of the figural forms to appear on the backs of the design amulets.Age-old symbolic figures, they are regeneration symbols in the Middle Kingdom, and probably already here. The monkey on be base, often an attendant on the course of the sun's travels, likewise has a place here as a regenerative figure.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

References

Title: Design Amulet with a Hippopotamus (? ) Head on the Back Pierced for Stringing, and a Left-facing Monkey as the Device
Period: First Intermediate Period
Dynasty: Dynasty 8
Date: ca. 2150–2100 B.C.
Geography: From Egypt
Medium: Glazed steatite
Dimensions: H. 0.8 × Dia. 1.3 cm (5/16 × 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926
Object Number: 26.7.33
Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

More Artwork

In the same gallery

In the same medium

From the same time and place

A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.

Design Amulet, Back in the Form of a Woman Suckling a Child, Device showing Two Lizards Head-to-tail, Steatite, glazed — Design Amulet, Back in the Form of a Woman Suckling a Child, Device showing Two Lizards Head-to-tail
ca. 2100–2080 B.C.

Design Amulet, Cow Nursing Calf and also a Kneeling Suckling Man Visible on Opposite Side on the Back, Device showing Antithetical Falcons with an Ankh Sign over a Lion, Steatite, glazed — Design Amulet, Cow Nursing Calf and also a Kneeling Suckling Man Visible on Opposite Side on the Back, Device showing Antithetical Falcons with an Ankh Sign over a Lion
ca. 2150–2100 B.C.

Design Amulet, Woman Suckling a Child on Back, Device showing Geometricized Monkeys, Steatite — Design Amulet, Woman Suckling a Child on Back, Device showing Geometricized Monkeys
ca. 2080–2010 B.C.

Design amulet, Cow and Calf on the Back, Device showing Antithetical Falcons Flanking an Ankh Sign over a Crouching Lion, Steatite — Design amulet, Cow and Calf on the Back, Device showing Antithetical Falcons Flanking an Ankh Sign over a Crouching Lion
ca. 2150–2100 B.C.

Cylinder seal, Steatite — Cylinder seal
ca. 2345–2181 B.C. or later

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.