Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Execration Text against the Asiatics
Middle Kingdom
Not on view
This object is not part of The Met collection. It was in the Museum for a special exhibition and has been returned to the lender.
These small pieces of pottery are inscribed with execration texts in hieratic script, parts of standard formulas against conceivable enemy of Egypt. The general nature of the formulas indicates that they had a broad protective function, rather than responding to a specific threat. The inscriptions were buried as part of a ritual designed to magically neutralize dangers. These texts refer to Asiatics.
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