Ancient Egyptian Magic: Amulets and Symbolism in Clothing and Jewelry

The Egyptians used amulets for protection and often displayed and wore images of various gods and goddesses. During most of ancient Egypt's long history it was a pantheistic culture, worshiping many gods. Each of these deities had a specific image and characteristics, such as Isis with her wings, Bet with the head of a cat, Anubis the jackal-headed god and Ptah, who often sports an erect phallus.

Amulets and Symbolism

Children, women and men wore amulets in life and in death. Necklaces, rings, earrings, brooches, crowns, circlets, bracelets, wrist bands, arm bands and wide jeweled collars often displayed images of gods and goddesses. They used specific symbols, such as the scarab and the ankh, for protective purposes on jewelry, clothing and accessories.

  Pectoral with Three Scarabs Tomb of Tutankhamun by ddenison, via Flickr

Embalmers wrapped amulets in the wrappings for the dead, creating the distinctive mummies that continue to fascinate museum goers and students of Egyptology to this day. Among the more bizarre forms this fascination took was the practice of grinding up mummies for medicine in the Victorian era.


Archaeologists discovered rich collections of jewelry in some of the unrobbed tombs. Queens, princesses and pharaohs had the most elaborate jewelry, often featuring a great deal of gold and precious gems. Many tombs were robbed in antiquity. Much of what we've learned about their magic, daily life, belief about the afterlife and their use of symbolism in fashion comes from tomb paintings and artifacts recovered from intact tombs.

Jewelry from King Tut's Tomb

King Tutankhamun's tomb may be the best-known ancient Egyptian tomb ever found sealed. The seal on the tomb doors was cause for great excitement because it meant the tomb was like a time capsule, intact and complete, the way the workers had left it centuries before after the boy king's death. The tomb was opened in 1922. The magnificence of the young kings grave goods, including a solid gold mask and cunningly crafted jewelry have impressed people all over the world at museum exhibits.

King Tut's tomb included a solid gold squatting figure of a king on neck chain, clearly intended as a pendant. It was in a small coffin. The king figure wears a colorful bead necklace and hold a flail, one of the symbols of kingship in ancient Egypt. Other jewelry from King Tut's tomb included a pectoral with three scarabs, a pectoral with suns and moons, a rising sun necklace and a scarab bracelet.

Scarabs

The scarab symbolized renewal and resurrection, stemming from the observation that newborn dung beetles emerge from the ball of dung that the dung beetle rolls around. Scarabs were popular amulets, often carved from precious and semi-precious stones. Scarabs often had a spell engraved on the reverse side and sometimes the Egyptians used them for commemorative purposes, similar to how coins were minted to celebrate rulers in Rome and other cultures. The names carved on scarabs can give archaeologists key information about the former owner and the time of its making.

The scarab often appears as a beetle with its wings closed. Scarabs with spread wings appear on ancient collars, pectorals, wall art, bracelets and mummy cases. The scarab sometimes holds the sun disk aloft. The sun disk represents the sun-god Ra, also spelled Re.

The ankh, a cross with the loop at the top, is another protective symbol that remains popular. 



Magic in the Pyramid Texts  

The pyramid texts include rich symbolism that expresses their religious beliefs and refer to elements such as blood and magic. Ritual, magical invocations and the every day use of amulets was part of life in ancient Egypt. Although elite men and women had the richest jewelry and burials, even common people had amulets.

(The king is one with the sun-god)
I am the redness which came forth
from Aset, I am the blood which issued
from Nebt-Het; I am firmly bound up
at the waist, and there is nothing
which the gods can do for me,
for I am the representative of Re,
and I do not
die.


'How lovely to see, how pleasing to behold!'
says Aset, when you ascend
to the sky, your power upon you, your
terror about you, your magic at your feet;....

(Line breaks mine)