Set of Four Amulets of the Sons of Horus

Artist Unidentified

Period Third Intermediate Period (Ancient Egyptian, 1070–664 BCE)

Dynasty Dynasty 23 (Ancient Egyptian, 818–712 BCE)

Dynasty Dynasty 24 (Ancient Egyptian, 724–712 BCE)

Dynasty Dynasty 25 (Nubian) (Ancient Egyptian, 712–664 BCE)

Place of OriginEgypt

Date23rd-25th Dynasties (818-664 BCE)

Mediumglazed ceramic

ClassificationJewelry

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1906.48A-D

Not on View

DescriptionThis is a set of four small ceramic amulets (1906.48A–D), each representing one of the Sons of Horus—Imsety with a human head (1906.48A), Hapy with a baboon head (1906.48C), Duamutef with a jackal head (1906.48B), and Qebehsenuef with a falcon head (1906.48D). All four figures are covered in a blue-green glaze and face to the left. They are shown in the shape of mummies and were likely made to be placed together inside a mummy’s wrappings to protect the body’s organs. Ask ChatGPT

Label TextThis group of four amulets represents the Sons of Horus, guardian deities assigned to protect the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines of the deceased. Rendered in ceramic and coated with blue-green glaze, the figures are human-headed Imsety, baboon-headed Hapy, jackal-headed Duamutef, and falcon-headed Qebehsenuef. Each figure faces left and is wrapped in stylized mummy form. These amulets would have been wrapped into the layers of a mummy’s linen bandages, placed near the organ they guarded. The set, which entered the museum as a coherent group, reflects the Egyptian concern for bodily preservation, cosmological alignment, and magical protection.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Mummies: From Egypt to Toledo, February 3- May 6, 2018.