Ancient Egyptian Blue Faience Bilateral Plaque with Taweret and Hieroglyphs

£ 600.00

An Egyptian blue faience bilaterial plaque, richly decorated with hieroglyphs. One side features the standing figure of a pregnant hippopotamus, the goddess Taweret. Her form fills one side of the plaque, the dominating hieroglyph. To her right are two other signs. The first is a large feather of Ma’at. Underneath is a flaring hieroglyph, described as a papyrus mat, and transliterated as ‘sȝ’ or ‘sa’. It is a logogram that means ‘protection’ and is often depicted alongside Taweret. The flat, reverse of the plaque is a little less clear. The large sign to the top, though slightly damaged, is most likely the vulture hieroglyph, representing the goddess Mut. Beneath is a large ‘neb’ basket symbol and the sky hieroglyph. The combined symbols refer to Mut’s epithet; Lady of the Sky. Mut is the Egyptian word for mother also, as she was considered the mother of all gods. Combined with the representation of Taweret, we can ascertain that this particular amulet was intended for the protection of a mother, possibly during childbirth. The amulet is pierced horizontally for suspension.

Date: Circa 664-332 BC
Period: Late Period
Provenance: Ex private UK collection, Mr. DP, formerly acquired from a London ADA dealership, from 2004-2012.
Condition: Very good condition. A chip to the top otherwise the piece is well preserved.

In stock

SKU: KW-32 Category: Tags: , ,

Thoeris, also known as Taweret, Ipy and Reret, was an Egyptian deity who attended women in childbirth, and became a patron for pregnant women accordingly. She was a household deity with no temple dedicated to her, but some form of shrine was in almost every house. Many women carried an amulet like this to assist them with labour and child rearing. From the New Kingdom onwards she was often depicted together with Bes, another apotropaic deity associated with women and children. Later, in the Amarna period, she gained importance as a funerary deity. This was because her powers were considered to be regenerative as well as protective. The longstanding importance of Thoeris/Taweret in daily life is evident from her continued presence on amulets throughout the Amarna period, and even after the establishment of Akhenaten’s henotheistic religion.

The vulture was a sacred bird, emblematic of two goddesses; Mut and Nekhbet. The former is often depicted wearing the feathers of a vulture as a headdress or as wings at her back. She was a principle deity, wife of the solar-god Amun and thus labelled as the mother of all gods.

To discover more about amulets in Egypt, please visit our relevant blog post: Egyptian Amulets and their Meanings: Ancient Egyptian Gods.

Weight 0.7 g
Dimensions L 1.8 x W 0.9 x H 0.4 cm
Culture

Egyptian Mythology

,

Faience

Region

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