Among Egyptian amulets there is a category made not of stone or faience, but of words. These are long, narrow strips of papyrus, covered in hieratic script, rolled up into a small cylinder and sealed in a little case to hang around the neck. Scholars call them oracular amuletic decrees. They contain a solemn promise, spoken by the gods themselves, to protect a person throughout their life.
Period and provenance
These documents date mainly to the Third Intermediate Period, especially the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties, and come largely from the area of Thebes. It was an age in which the power of the god Amun and his oracle was at its height: political, judicial and personal decisions were submitted to the god's verdict, which was manifested during the processions of his statue.
A group of these texts was studied and published in 1960 by the Egyptologist I. E. S. Edwards, who gave them the name by which they are still known.
How they are made
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Support | A long, very narrow strip of papyrus |
| Script | Hieratic, in horizontal lines |
| Recipient | A named person, often with the mother's name |
| Container | A cylindrical case of wood, leather or metal |
| Use | Worn around the neck as an amulet |
The mother's name is a common formula in Egyptian magic: it identified the person with certainty, since motherhood was considered sure.
The gods who speak
The most striking feature of these texts is their voice. They are not spells recited by a magician, but decrees issued by the gods in the first person. The text opens with the list of deities who speak, often the Theban gods Amun, Mut and Khonsu, together with others. Then follows a long series of promises: "We shall keep her", "We shall protect her", "We shall make her sound".
The gods commit themselves as in a contract. The papyrus is, in a sense, a legal document drawn up between heaven and a family.
What they protected against
The promises list the dangers in detail. Among those mentioned are:
- deities who might become angry, including those of temples in distant cities;
- hostile spirits of the dead and wandering demons;
- foreign magicians and their magic;
- dangerous animals such as crocodiles, snakes and scorpions;
- accidents, such as a wall collapsing or a fall;
- misfortunes of every kind, at home, in the fields and on journeys.
The lists are so thorough that they offer a glimpse of daily life and its fears. People feared what happens by night and by day, in Egypt and abroad, in heaven and on earth.
For whom they were written
Many decrees were intended for children, and some seem to have been prepared shortly after birth. The promises in fact cover the whole course of life: growing up, marriage, the birth of children. The decree accompanied the child into adulthood, as a constant and personal protection.
Parents probably turned to the temple, and the decree was drawn up by scribes in connection with the oracular cult. The god's word, obtained in the temple, was thus turned into an object to be carried.
Written word and protection
The oracular amuletic decree brings together two central ideas of Egyptian religion:
- the divine word has creative and binding force;
- writing makes the word permanent and portable.
Rolling up the papyrus and sealing it in a case meant guarding the word as one guards a treasure. The text did not need to be read every day: it was enough that it was present, in contact with the body.
An amulet of words
These documents show that, for the Egyptians, the highest protection was not an image but a commitment of the gods set down in writing. Maestro Cornelio recognises in them one of the purest forms of amulet: not an object representing a power, but a text containing a promise.
In short
- Oracular amuletic decrees are rolled papyrus strips worn around the neck in cases.
- They date to the Third Intermediate Period and come mainly from Thebes.
- The gods, such as Amun, Mut and Khonsu, speak in the first person and promise protection.
- They list dangers in detail, from foreign magicians to crocodiles and collapsing walls.
- They were often intended for children, to protect them throughout life.
