The Spirit on the Wall

In this paper I would like to illustrate a synthesis of the results from my PHD Research on the amulets of Kerma Culture emerged during the excavation conducted by G. Reisner. The first aim of my research is describing, in a systematic way, these materials which have only been partially studied and published until now. The study of the amulets is essential because it provides important information relating to the symbols, to their protective value, and helping us to know a still unknown pantheon that could be very complex, born about by Nubian features combined with Egyptian and southern elements. Some types of amulets found in the storerooms are comparable to the Egyptian ones, but others seem to be distinctive of the Kerma culture. Finally the amulets can be a window onto the material culture of a civilization: give us insights into the culture’s social hierarchies, religious beliefs, natural resources and technological capabilities.

Few people know of the modest Egyptian amulet collection that is held in the storage rooms of the IU Art Museum. The collection is small and the documentation of the provenience information gives the reader little information about the artifacts aside from what they look like. Due to the lack of information about them, this small assemblage has been admired only for its aesthetic qualities, instead of being understood as cultural artifacts that they are and their place in human history. However this era is ended as the research presented here documents the archaeological value of this collection, making it an indispensable resource for future researchers and educators; using artifacts as tools to connect modern people with the past.

Marie Brett Anamnesis an·am·ne·sis n. pl. an·am·ne·ses (-sz) 1. Psychology A recalling to memory; recollection. 2. Medicine: A patients case history, esp. using patient's recollections [Greek anamn·sis, from anamimn·skein, anamn-, to remind : ana-, ana-+ mimn skein, to recall; Indo-European roots.] [Attic Greek word meaning reminiscence and/or memorial sacrifice.] [Irish Gaelic 'Anam', meaning Soul.]

Science Museum Group Journal , 2019

What are amulets? How are they situated in the larger narrative of European healing? Varied and complex objects, amulets present both challenges and opportunities for historians and museums alike. Yet an examination of these often-overlooked items within a medical context can provide significant information about cure and protection over different times and geographies. This article analyses ten amulets from the Science Museum collections, and asks what we can learn from exploring these objects' material features and varying functions. It argues for a reconsideration of amulets from their categorisation by nineteenth-and twentieth-century collectors and classification by modern museums, to their recognition as a significant part of the history of healing.

2024

Tell el-Ghaba archaeological site is located on the east of the Nile Delta (North Sinai, Egypt), close to the extinct Pelusiac branch. It Is an urban settlement that was occupied between the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period and the Early Saite Period ( mid-10th - end 7th centuries BC). Given the socio-political context of the period and its location, this site has become important for the analysis of the social, economic and military policies that the Egyptian state developed on its eastern border, as well as the characteristics of the different structures. Previously-developed studies on Tell el-Ghaba materials suggest that the dominant activities in the structures were domestic. In the spaces where these activities took place, a great variety of small finds were recovered, the study and review of which seeks to contribute to the understanding of the functions that these objects would have had and to the interpretation of the themes, meanings and symbolism that they may have had. This work is presented as a continuation of previous writings in which the concept of `small finds´ has been problematized and a review of the materials catalogued as `small finds´ for Tell El-Ghaba has been systematised and conducted. Defining the use and meaning of `small finds´ is a difficult and complex task and the functional issue requires considering a set of variables, which integrate the thematic and symbolic compositions, since the meaning is part of the function of each object. The research questions pursued are not only oriented to recognize if we are dealing with amulets, ornaments, seals or domestic pieces, but rather seek to understand whether the objects could have functioned in all or some of those options and others. In summary, in this work we will focus on those `small finds´ with amuletical value, and how their study allows us to characterize the inhabitants of this settlement and their beliefs. In summary, it is proposed that: - The small finds form a group of popular and local objects typical of the period in which the occupations in this border site and some of the meanings that denote them can be understood within a religious, mythical, ritual and even identity use. - Many of the small finds are related to the domestic sphere, with the powers of protection and even curative for diseases, the power of life and rebirth, or with those who can be considered pseudo-seals that allow us to think of both religious and identity meanings. - As a whole most of these small finds mentioned they sought magical protection to the individual who owned them, their decorations intended to bring into play the forces of these divine representations, through sympathetic and/or apotropaic magic. They could be carried by each person from taking advantage of the sectors in which the objects could be lined up, suspended, linked and fastened with strings or other elements - integrating different items-, as part of body adornments, of outfits, placed in the furniture, in domestic offerings, accompanying the activities people's daily. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waqYCXKhI80&list=PL7JLKD5Qg67n7CZb4v8nUtYEuXlH2jxhd&index=5

Excavations at Lefkandi have dispelled much of the gloom enshrouding the Early Iron Age, revealing a community with significant disposable wealth and with connections throughout the Mediterranean. The eastern imports in particular have drawn scholarly attention, with discussion moving from questions of production and transportation to issues surrounding consumption. This article draws attention to some limitations in prevalent socio-political explanations of consumption at Lefkandi, arguing that models relying on gift-exchange, prestige-goods and elite display cannot adequately account for the distribution, chronology, find context and function of imports at Lefkandi. A study of trinkets – small but manifestly foreign imports of cheap material – offers a new perspective. An analysis of their form, context, use and meaning demonstrates that trinkets were meaningfully and deliberately deposited with children as talismans or amulets. Talismanic practice had Late Bronze Age precedents, and in the Early Iron Age was stimulated from personal contact with the Near East or Cyprus and nurtured by the unique mortuary landscape at Lefkandi. This article demonstrates the need for archaeologists to treat mortuary beliefs as a meaningful explanatory variable. Moreover, the ability of non-elite objects to convey powerful ideas has important implications for the nature and dynamics of artistic and cultural exchanges between Greece and the East in the Iron Age.

TRIBAL ART MAGAZINE, 2015

The glyptic finds from the 1997-2002 seasons at Tell es-Safi/Gath are discussed. None of these items was previously published.

Current Research in Egyptology (CRE) 2020-2021, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, 2021