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Details
LOT 0456
Egyptian Carnelian Cat Amulet
PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C. OR LATER
1/2 in. (1.82 grams, 16 mm).
Amuletic pendant of the cat goddess Bastet, sitting on a rectangular base, suspension loop behind the shoulders. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired 1990s.
Property of a Staffordshire lady collector.
Ex Quercus of Quonians, Lichfield, UK, 2018.
Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.
Private collection, London.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. Andrews, C., Amulets of Ancient Egypt, London, 1994, pp. 32-33, for discussion, and figs. 28f, 29d for examples of small cat amulets in stone and faience.
Footnotes
The cat was sacred to Bastet, a protective mother goddess and the daughter of the sun god Re. Amulets provided the wearer with the goddess's protection.
Her name means ‘she of the bast [ointment jar],’ which may have contained a substance favoured by or exclusive to royalty. Originally, Bastet was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, but by the late New Kingdom, she was typically depicted with a cat's head. She is sometimes shown with kittens, emphasising her maternal role as a fierce protector of offspring.
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