Design Amulet with Loop on Back, Device with Dancing God, Hathor Symbol and Lion

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. This large bone or ivory button form design amulet represents an early attestation of the myth of the sun’s eye. The myth recounts the withdrawal of Re’s daughter Tefnut/Hathor, identified with his eye, to live as a wild lion in deserts far from Egypt. She is lured back through magical spells by Thoth and Shu, and her contentment is maintained by cult observations including dance and music performed by demons. The lion here represents her aspect expressed in the desert withdrawal, the Hathor/Bat form element on this base represents the contented goddess, and the dancing demon the cult that calms her.