AN EGYPTIAN CARNELIAN TYET AMULET New Kingdom, Dynasty XIX–XX, 1307–1070 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN CARNELIAN TYET AMULET, NEW KINGDOM, DYNASTY XIX-XX, 1307-1070 B.C. Of characteristic tyet form, carved from a deep translucent carnelian of rich cherry-red tone, the amulet rising from a stepped rectangular base through a central panel with pendant lateral folds to a large open loop surmounted by a small integral suspension tab. The front face carries the standard configuration in low relief: the ribbed collar at the shoulder, the recessed central niche framed by two flanking sashes falling to the base, and within the niche a small worn figural or hieroglyphic element rendered in raised relief. The reverse is smoothly finished. The stone retains a fine polish, with earthen encrustation lodged in the recesses and along the perforation. The tyet, sometimes called the Knot of Isis or Girdle of Isis, takes its form from a knotted length of cloth resembling the ankh but with the horizontal arms folded downward. Its meaning is set out in Spell 156 of the Book of the Dead, which prescribes that a tyet of red jasper or carnelian be placed at the throat of the deceased so that "the power of Isis shall be the protection of this great one, and shall guard him from anyone who would do him harm." The amulet was thus understood as a direct extension of the goddess's protective agency, invoked at the moment of transition into the afterlife and worn against the body of the mummified dead. The choice of carnelian is inseparable from the amulet's meaning. Spell 156 stipulates a red stone specifically because red was the colour of the blood of Isis, and the tyet was often glossed in the funerary literature as embodying that blood shed in her mourning for Osiris. Carnelian, mined in the Eastern Desert and imported from Nubia, was among the most prized of Egyptian hardstones and carried associations with vitality, solar heat, and regenerative power. A tyet cut from clear red carnelian, rather than from glass, faience, or a duller jasper, therefore represents the fullest realisation of the spell's prescription and would have been a comparatively costly commission. Tyet amulets are attested from the Middle Kingdom onward but become widespread only in the New Kingdom, when the cult of Isis and Osiris achieved its mature form and the corpus of funerary spells was standardised. They are frequently found paired with the djed pillar of Osiris in burial assemblages, the two together binding the deceased into the protective embrace of the divine couple. The present amulet, with its clearly articulated loop, ribbed collar, and framed central panel, belongs to the developed New Kingdom type produced in workshops attached to elite burials of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. This tyet exemplifies the New Kingdom funerary amulet at its most orthodox: the material, form, and prescribed placement together satisfying the ritual formula of Spell 156 in a single small object. Its survival in unbroken carnelian, with the suspension loop intact, marks it as a superior example of a type more often encountered in glass or fragmentary condition. Dimensions: Height: 3cm

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