LOT 0561

Egyptian Stone Amulet Collection

NEW KINGDOM-LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 1100-500 B.C.

1 1/8 - 1 5/8 in. (19.5 grmas total, 28-41 mm).

Comprising: a feldspar amulet of the crouching god Sokar with falcon head and human body, custom-made display stand; a carved vulture amulet on a rectangular base; suspension loop on the back. [2]

Sokar: Ex Roger Liechti (1934-2010), Petit-Lancy, Switzerland (inv.no. E.601); acquired from Galerie Elsa-Bloch Diener, Bern.
Thence by family descent.
Vulture: Ex Roger Liechti (1934-2010), Petit-Lancy, Switzerland (inv.no. E. 772); acquired in 1984 from Mr Cohen, Galerie La Reine Margot, Paris.
Thence by family descent, Switzerland.

Cf. Reisner, G.A., Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, Nos.12528-13595, Vol. II, Amulets, Cairo, 1958, pl. XII, no. 12950, for a comparable vulture amulet; pl. XIV, nos. 13183 and 13213, for examples of seated hawk-headed amulets.

Vulture representations are among the oldest amulet types, found in burials dating to the late Third millennium B.C. They provide apotropaic protection for the deceased. The vulture is associated with various Egyptian deities, especially with the goddess Nekhbet.
Sokar, the hawk-god originally of the Memphite necropolis and deity of fertility and artisans, became closely linked with Osiris and Ptah, forming the syncretic deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.