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The investigation deals with the mysterious signs on the magical ivory of the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period. They mainly represent protective deities of the cardinal directions, which protect private houses and tombs from various demons and enemies. The article compares the signs of the protective deities with the symbols of the magical bricks and examines their possible connection. Various symbols and signs associated with the protective deities are analyzed. The exact meaning of each sign is examined and interpreted. It is determined that certain symbols and signs on the magical knives correspond and possibly represent protective deities of the cardinal directions. It is also noted that these symbols can vary on different apotropaia (protective amulets). However, a more comprehensive investigation is required for the exact meaning and identification of the protective deities. [Extracted from the article]

The magical gem published here belongs to the Akademisches Kunstmuseum der Universität Bonn (Abb. 1-2.; measurements: 33 x 24 x 6 mm). It stems from the collection of Klaus Müller, who acquired it in the 1960th or 1970th. Obverse and reverse of the gem are filled with inscriptions, most of them consisting of unknown voces magicae, and possibly some meaningless letters to fill the space. On the obverse a prominent inscription invokes Eloe, that is Elohim, the Jewish God, who entered the magic pantheon like Greek and Egyptian ones and under the name of Iaō, even got an image in the figure of the cock-headed, snake-legged warrior. Eloe here means the great magic Sun god, as becomes apparent by Semese(ilam) in col. d 6. The reverse names Thoth, the Moon god. Thus the gem was an amulet for day and night, that is for ever. The bevel of the gem is left plain, so it could have been personalizied by an inscription, which was not the case; thus in its present form the gem was an amulet for every owner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presented group of late Republican to early Imperial intagli consists of round layered stones (sardonyx, cornelian onyx) with a flat reverse side, which are strongly convex on the front side. Their horizontally stacked and differently coloured plies are sanded on the front to form concentric rings around a dark centre. The motif incised in this centre looks like an eidolon in the pupil of a 'fisheye'. Most of these motifs can be interpreted against the background of Augustan love poetry. It is possible that gems of this kind were gifts of love and, due to their striking design as an eye, also had an apotropaic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bucket-shaped pendants were broadly diffused in various cultural environments from the area comprised between the north-east of the Black Sea and Central Europe. This study attempts, without aiming at being exhaustive, to analyse the objects of this type within the Sarmatian environment. The author examines these pendants from the Sarmatian environment compared to that of other cultural settings, within a broader context and concludes that in the Sarmatian environment, bucket-shaped pendants come mainly from either richly and poorly furnished children and women graves. The author notes that earliest specimens of such pendants are found in the north-Pontic area and originate in features that date to the 2nd – 1st century BC, which suggests that their origin, beside other pendant types, lies in the north-Pontic region. In the 1st century BC, these pendants are present with the late Scythians and the Sarmatians from the north and north-west of the Black Sea, but also in the Geto-Dacian and Germanic milieu (the Poieneşti-Lucășeuca culture). Once with the 1st century AD, the number of the bucket-shaped pendants increases significantly in the late Scythian, Sarmatian, Geto-Dacian environments but also in the cemeteries of the towns and settlements from the north-Pontic area. Still in this period, they start to be recorded in the Przeworsk culture area, as well. Subsequent to the analysis of bucket-shaped pendant finds from the Sarmatian environment, it was concluded they were not extensively used by the Sarmatians, like in the case of other pendant types. The author notes that the majority of bucket-shaped pendants from the Sarmatian environment of the north and north-west Pontic area come from graves dating to the chronological interval comprised between mid 1st century AD – early/first decades of the 2nd century AD. Furthermore, these artefacts are rare in second half of the 2nd century – first half of the 3rd century AD Sarmatian graves and are missing from the second stage of the late Sarmatian period (the second half of the 3rd century – 4th century AD). Following the analysis of the Sarmatian funerary features of the Great Hungarian Plain in which bucket-shaped pendants were discovered, it is concluded that the custom of wearing such pendants by women and children was carried to this area in the second half of the 1st century AD by the first groups of Sarmatians that settled the region. Last but not least, it was noted that in the Sarmatian environment of this geographical area these artefacts were used, to a more or less extent, on the entire duration of their inhabitancy of this area. In the end it is concluded that the massive use of bucket-shaped pendants in the 2nd – 4th century AD in various cultural environments of the area comprised between the north of the Black Sea and Central Europe evidences they became “supranational” artefacts, being produced and used by different populations from this geographical area

The results of radiographic and visual examinations of four mummies originating from Deir el-Bahari, now kept in different museums throughout Egypt, are presented here. One individual dates to the Twenty-second Dynasty, and the remaining three date to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and were possibly related. Some of the mummies possessed amulets, with one individual having unusual accouterments in addition to the amulets.

The early Christian church considered magic to be pagan; thus, any individual wanting to join the church was required to avoid magical rituals. At the same time, the church created its own rituals by adapting and transforming forms of magical rituals and presenting them under the garb of Christianity. This process was accompanied by an artificial separation of rituals into legitimate and illegitimate ones, although this demarcation is not always clear today. This paper examines this construction of legitimate and illegitimate rituals on the basis of the legend of Cyprian to elucidate the gray areas between prayer, exorcism, and magic in Late Antiquity. The survival of amulets and exorcisms in Christian times clearly indicates that the ban on magic did not succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 250 beads and pendants have been registered from the Harbor Temple and its surroundings, the so-called “harbor temenos”, in the Red Sea port of Berenike. The Harbor Temple assemblage is dominated by South Asian glass beads dating from the 4th through early 6th centuries AD, but the bead finds from the presumed temenos show much greater variety in both type and date, the latter spanning the centuries from the 1st to the 5th century AD. Rather than being accidentally lost, the quantity and find context of the beads support the idea of a votive offering function. Stylistic similarities of some objects found in the Harbor Temple have led to their association with South Arabia or Axum (Rądkowska, Sidebotham, and Zych 2013); yet a much closer affiliation might also be considered. Similar ritual objects, as well as beads and pendants, have been recorded at contemporary temples and shrines in Nubia

Caravaggio's emblematic Medusa is mostly regarded as a representation of the mirrored decapitation of the Gorgon and thus as a reflection on Perseus' protective shield. This essay proposes a new interpretation: Caravaggio's Medusa is an adaptation of the antique Gorgoneion. The Gorgoneion historically depicted Medusa's head with its petrifying gaze, which was placed on the shield of Athena. Due to its symbolic and protective power, the Gorgoneion became a frequent subject in art and handicraft well into Baroque art. Caravaggio's contemporaries - including the poets Gaspare Murtola and Giambattista Marino - left witness that they interpreted the image as a Gorgoneion. In addition, the image itself contains elements that buttress this interpretation, including, inter alia, the green surface of the shield and the shadow. Both the historic accounts and the painted details therefore render an interpretation of the painting as Gorgoneion very likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]