Egyptian Funerary Amulets: Protection and Magic in the Afterlife

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In ancient Egypt, funerary amulets were wrapped inside the bandages or inserted in the bead-nets that covered the mummified corpse, believing that their magical properties would protect, preserve and regenerate the body.

These amulets adopted a wide variety of forms, particularly divine figures, sacred animals, scarabs, plants, royal attributes, body parts or hieroglyphs representing abstract concepts, and were made of different materials whose symbolic value was dictated by their colour: faience (youth), lapis lazuli (rebirth), carnelian and red jasper (blood) and gold (immutability).

Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Department