Red Crown as Amulet
Description
Object Label: Living persons wore only one or a few amulets at a time, but mummies usually bear many amulets. The Ma’at amulet (no. 2) and heart scarabs (nos. 1, 3, 11), which occurred in many forms, guaranteed a successful judgment of the dead. The amulets of a hand (no. 8), lungs and a windpipe (no. 12), and wadjet-eyes (i.e., “healthy” eyes; no. 4) protected those parts of the body and also had connotations of resurrection and the unity or integrity of the mummy. The enigmatic aper amulet (no. 13) takes the form of the hieroglyph meaning “to be equipped,” perhaps in reference to the mummy’s preparation. The two crowns (nos. 5, 6) were symbols of power. The Heh insignia (no. 7), like the popular ankh-sign, denoted eternal life. Among the living, the frog (no. 9) and possibly also the hare (no. 10) suggested fertility. The amulets of the Four Sons of Horus (no. 15) perhaps served, as they did with canopic jars, to protect various organs of the body. Caption: Red Crown as Amulet, ca. 664–30 B.C.E.. Faience, 1 1/2 × 7/8 × 7/16 in. (3.8 × 2.3 × 1.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.580.48. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A small turquoise-green faience amulet shaped like a crown, shown isolated against a light background.
The object is a compact, crown-like form rendered in turquoise-green (possibly with darker green/blackened edges) faience. The top is rounded with a slight ridge, and the front has a recessed groove/indentation that suggests a molded crown profile. A small circular perforation is visible near the upper/front area, indicating it was strung or attached. No legible hieroglyphs, cartouches, or modern text are visible in the image. The underside is not fully shown, and tool marks/molding lines are consistent with small molded amulet manufacture. Overall appearance matches a miniature wearable protective item rather than a larger sculpture.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 16.580.48 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3177 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.