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Image Not Available for Seal Amulet of Isis and Horus
Seal Amulet of Isis and Horus
Image Not Available for Seal Amulet of Isis and Horus
ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Seal Amulet of Isis and Horus

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa
CultureEgyptian
PeriodFirst Intermediate Period
Date2118-1980 BCE
MediumSteatite
Credit LineGift of Dr. Jerome Eisenberg
Dimensions11/16 x 3/16 x 3/16 in. (1.7 x 0.5 x 0.5 cm)
Object number2000.009
Label TextSeal amulets appear quite early as tomb offerings and could either be actual name seals used in life or merely symbolic tokens. This seal represents an unusual double image of the child-god Horus on the lap of his mother, Isis.

Twinned motifs such as this appear on seals of the First Intermediate Period, and this maternal image is appropriate, since the majority of these seals are found in the graves of women and children. The cravings on the underside of the seal are not hieroglyphic symbols, but random shapes, indicating that this was probably not a functional seal. During this disruption of the First Intermediate Period, literacy seems to have suffered with the breakdown of the centralized state, leading to the manufacture of items with pseudo-hieroglyphs.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, October 6, 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 61.
ProvenanceWith Jerome Eisenberg (1930-2022) [Royal-Athena Galleries], New York, New York.
Status
On view
Collections
  • Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art