Egyptian Faience Amulet of Taweret
£ 375.00
A delicate, ancient Egyptian green faience amulet, depicting the goddess Taweret. She is depicted as a hippopotamus, with pendulant breasts and a pregnant belly. Her limbs are those of a feline, most likely a lion, with her arms by her side and her legs planted firmly on a flat, rectangular base. Her long tail at the back of the amulet belongs to a Nile crocodile, decorated with a moulded, chevron pattern. Her facial features have been stylistically moulded, detailing the rounded hippopotamus snout and ears, and tripartite wig on her head. There is a hole vertically through the centre for suspension.
Date: Circa 664-332 BC
Period: Late Period
Provenance: Ex 20th Century private collection, passed by descent.
Condition: Excellent condition. Some earthly encrustations to the surface and some stable cracking of the glaze, typical of age.
Thoeris, also known as ‘Tawaret’ was an Egyptian deity who attended women in childbirth, and became a patron for pregnant women accordingly. She is often shown standing as a heavily pregnant hippopotamus with a low hanging stomach. 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.
To discover more about amulets in the Ancient Egyptian world, please visit our relevant post: Amulets in Ancient Egypt.
