6
Fragment of a Magic Rod Egyptian, Middle Kingdom (Dynasty 11–13, ca. 2040–1650 B.C.) Blue-green glazed steatite L: 6 cm (enlarged) Except for minor cracks, the rod’s glaze is in excellent condition. One of the unadorned long sides has a small hole in its center. The rod is cut from glazed steatite. The blue-green hue of the glaze carried strong connotations of rebirth, adding to its overall power. Some soft stones, easy to shape (especially steatite or serpentine), were among the first materials used for glazed decoration. Because of their fine-grained texture and their stability during firing (steatite does not retract when heated to a high temperature), glaze adheres well to the stone surface and is more resistant than on others supports. When fired, steatite turns hard and thus was particularly well adapted for the production of small objects for daily use, such as amulet-seals, scarabs, or kohl vases. Its dark color (dark greenish gray or black) changes and typically turns into a beige-white. This object is one of a series of elongated rectangular elements that would have been arranged in a row to form a magic rod. Like many amulets, magic rods adorned with animal figures and other symbols—sometimes hieroglyphic signs, but always something possessing strong apotropaic powers—were part of the repertoire of magical objects included in the burials of private individuals. Their purpose was to protect the deceased on his journey to the afterlife. During the Middle Kingdom, the number of these amulets increased. The magic rods were also employed by the living. Scholars have suggested that they may have been used to guard infants and new mothers from everyday threats, such as diseases or poisonous animals, including snakes and scorpions. On one of the long sides, in low relief, are displayed from left to right an anhk sign, a sa sign, a cobra, and a frog; the opposite side contains a sa sign, a vulture, a cobra, and a frog. The sa represented protection, and the seemingly ubiquitous ankh symbolized life. The cobra, an extremely potent symbol, was often seen adorning the crown of the pharaoh and acting as his protector. The vulture was associated with Nekhbet, tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt, and served as the inspiration for the crowns of Egyptian queens. Frogs inhabited the marshy edges of the Nile when the annual floodwaters retreated and came to embody fertility and regeneration; they may also represent the goddess Heket. While some magic rods exhibit figures or symbols on their short sides, the end of this one is unadorned. As evidenced by the rod housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the small hole pierced on one of the undecorated sides would have held an animal figure in place by means of a small tenon. Despite the seemingly unpleasant nature of some of the creatures depicted here, they appear to have served to ward off even more evil and dangerous forces bent on harming the deceased or the vulnerable living. These rods may also have functioned as protection for the sun on its dangerous journey through the underworld each night to be reborn with the dawn. In both cases, since the message of rebirth and regeneration is clear, the rod would have been a welcome inclusion in a burial.
PROVENANCE Ex-J.-M. Talleux (1930–1995) collection, Grand Fort Philippe, France. PUBLISHED IN Art of the two Lands, Egypt from 4000 B.C. to 1000 A.D., (New York, 2006), no. 15. BIBLIOGRAPHY ARNOLD D., An Egyptian Bestiary, (New York, 1995), p. 35. BOURRIAU J., Pharaohs and Mortals : Egyptian Art in the Middle Kingdom, (Cambridge (USA), 1988), p. 86. HAYES W.C., The Scepter of Egypt: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 1, From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom, (New York, 1990), pp. 227-28. Related examples of magic rods: FRIEDMAN F.D. (ed.), Gifts of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Faience, exh. cat., Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (London, 1998), p. 110 and 207, fig. 68. ROBINS G., The Art of Ancient Egypt, (Cambridge (USA)), p. 115, fig. 124.
20 21