Ivory Magical Knife, Middle Kingdom Brussels Museum of Art and History via GEM


reverse of that knife...

As we will see with the wand in the Cairo Museum, these wands have a protective nature for mothers in childbirth. The Global Egyptian Museum website explains, the entities depicted "would magically turn their aggressive instincts against those who would do evil to the mother and child. Both sides of this piece of ivory are decorated in a similar fashion..." Among the various entities are "a serpent, a crocodile, a brazier, the god Aha-the fighter-, a hippopotamus, a Seth animal, another hippo, a knife, the frog-goddess Heqet and a winged griffin."

I've found fragments of another such magical wand likely to be from the Middle Kingdom, this one at the Petrie Museum in London:


Pieces of (hippopotamus) ivory magical wand, Middle Kingdom ? (1700BCE-2024BCE)
Petrie Museum number - UC16383

These two small (8cm {3in}) pieces of a magical wand are not contiguous. The first piece has a winged snake goddess to the far left, then a god of uncertain deity (is it a falcon head or a lion head?), Set is easily recognizable, and to his right is a goddess, perhaps with a lion head. The other piece includes the rounded end with a lion head, to its left, Taweret wielding a knife, and an unidentifable god to her left.

The British Museum also has some of these wands. Here's one that features Set's head, in addition to other figures:


Amuletic wand, incised hippopotamus ivory, 30.5 cm
Egypt, Middle Kingdom
Ancient break, repaired(in Antiquity)- binding-holes
Acquisition date 1891, Purchased from Rev Chauncey Murch
AN96314001, Registration number: 1891,0404.24, BM/Big number: 24426


Close-up of Set's head

I was wondering about the unusual design, putting the image of Set in a square, if it had any significance. I noticed Set is not the only deity to receive this treatment. I found a menat fragment from Thebes that features Horus in a very similar square:


Faience menat fragment
from Deir el-Bahri, Thebes, Egypt,
Mentuhotep II Temple, Dynasty XVIII
Ref. No 1904.48:07
© Bolton Council

While looking for something else, a chance sighting in Ritner's _Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice_ turned up just such a box:


"the word HWT...literally 'house'
Budge shows that combined with a deity, it means 'Temple of that Deity'

Thus, the ivory wand is referring to the temple of Set, while the menat is referring to temple of Horus.

The British Museum has another wand. It too is damaged, and the image of Set has faded:


Amuletic wand, incised hippopotamus ivory, 27 cm long
Egypt, Middle Kingdom
Ancient break, repaired(in Antiquity)- binding-holes
Acquisition date 1927, Purchased from Mohammed Mohassib AN96324001, Registration number: 1927,0709.14, BM/Big number: 58794


Close-up of Set

I wonder if there's significance to the seven binding holes, rather than just six. Seven was a very magical number to the ancient Egyptians.


"Constellation of the Thigh", perhaps? (Pelizaeus Museum, via GEM)

Here's another wand, with very clear details:


2 Fragment of an amuletic wand, showing the Seth-animal (p. 17 sq.)
_Seth, God of Confusion_, TeVelde, Plate II, 2:
Dynastic Egypt in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, 1955, pl. 7.

An interesting aside: The Petrie web editor made sure to note the ivory came from an hippotamus. I went to Wiki, and found a sample photo of a hippo skull that looked rather familiar. The notation said that it was from Disney World's Animal Kingdom. Well, small wonder that it was familiar, for I've seen it and photographed it myself:


You can see how these wands have the rounded shape that they do, using the ivory from these strong teeth which the hippo uses for fighting.

Furthermore, as I've noted, in addition to Taweret, elsewhere, the hippotamus has had associations with Set.