Magical Wands, Middle Kingdom


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.


This 12th Dynasty wand amulet is at the Cairo Museum. I've made a small digital amulet using the Set image in it:

The hieroglyph at the bottom means 'amulet' and is a symbol of protection, often associated with the Goddess Tawaret, protector of women during childbirth.

Tawaret shows as a hippotamus and appears to the left of Set on that wand, as does the frog Goddess Heket, also associated with protection of childbirth.

Sources:
Decoding Egyptian Heiroglyphs, Bridget McDermott, Chronicle Books, 2001
EGYPT: People, Gods, Pharoahs, by Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, Taschen GmbH, 2003 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."

The Global Egyptian Museum website shares another wand, aka 'knife':


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


reverse of that knife, showing Set, represented by his animal, is on both sides...

The British Museum has some more 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 could be referring to temple of Horus. It, however, is more likely to be referring to the goddess Hathor, as the glyphs for her name are:


Source: The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, by George Hart

Also, "The menat was another object that was shaken during the worship of Hathor." (From Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt by Anne K. Capel, Glenn Markoe, page 100) So the "hwt-set" may have an additional meaning.

Meanwhile, 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.