About Amulets
Amulets, the equivalent of good luck charms charged with magical protection, are among the most common objects from ancient Egypt. They were worn by the living on necklaces, bracelets, or rings to avert illness and misfortune, and they were attached to mummy wrappings to safeguard the deceased against potential dangers in the afterlife. Most amulets are pierced or have a loop to allow them to be strung as jewelry or sewn to a mummy.1
Amulets were usually molded in faience or carved from stone, but other materials were also used, such as gold, silver, copper alloy, glass, and (more rarely) wood, clay, or wax. Spells 154–60 of the Book of the Dead stipulate that some amulets should be made of a specific material or in a specific color and should be placed on a particular part of the body.[1]2
Amulets were made in a great number of shapes. Many funerary amulets refer to myths about gods, especially Osiris, Isis, and Horus who thwarted evil and restored health through their bravery and magic. Examples in the form of other deities (see cats. 71–83) were believed to promote health, to bring good luck, and to provide protection in the afterlife, because the gods were generally thought to be benevolent and approachable and to care for humankind. Other amulets in the form of hieroglyphs (see cats. 90, 93–95) or parts of the body (see cats. 85, 88–89, 92) conveyed specific protective properties.3
Many amulets of deities are beautifully crafted, their tiny size belying their complex forms. Close observation shows that many of them are miniature statues with the same features as their larger counterparts, including back pillars and bases, and figures standing with their arms at their sides and their left foot advanced. As with Egyptian statuary, figures depicted on amulets are oriented frontally, with their heads up and looking directly forward.4
The perceived power of amulets and the stability of funerary beliefs resulted in the production of certain types for several millennia, well into the Ptolemaic and even the Roman Periods. Because some of these formats were made over such a long period of time, dating them precisely can be difficult.
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Emily Teeter, “About Amulets,” in Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago by Emily Teeter and Ashley F. Arico, ed. Ashley F. Arico (Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), https://doi.org/10.53269/9780865593213/11.
© 2025 by The Art Institute of Chicago. This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
