This quite large mottled blue faience amulet of a crowned striding liom headed figure is that of Mayhes I think....or is it?? ; wearing a short kilt and an Atef crown and having the tripartite wig.
Thetre is a loss from the front of the base but otherwise a nice example of this ratre type of amulet.
50mm.
Egyptian , Third Intermediate Period/Late Period.
From Henry
Hi Bron,
This is not Mahes : its a woman and looks to me to be Mehyt.
Best,
Henry
Aha, yes, I do believe Henry is possibly right.
Thanks for that.
It's ever rarer then!
This is the only interactive antiquities gallery in the universe. :o)
This piece is drawing interest.
Here is a message from Didier.
From Didier
This is probably not Mehyt either. The amulet barely looks female and
Mehyt amulets usually wear a sacred fish headrest. Could be the
lion-headed Mahesa who wears an atef-crown (see UC52867) and is even rarer!
All the best.
The last photo is of object - UC52867 in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology A Blue-green glazed faience amulet of lion-headed Mahesa with leonine mane; he wears atef-crown and pleated kilt; amulet broken at top of legs, lower part missing; back pillar perforated laterally behind shoulders. Late Period
42 mm.
Sometimes it's really not easy to determine who the representation is meant to be. This is from Carol Andrews' very fine book , Amulets of Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press, London, 1994.
"All the great gods and goddesses, as well as some of their less well-known divine colleagues, appear as amulets. Thus among lion-headed figures are found not only Sekhmet, Bastet and Wadjyt but Pakhet and Mehyt and the fierce god Mahes." (p 12)
"The problem is that the Egyptians believed most of their gods were able to manifest themselves in animal form, but there were not enough types of animal to suffice. Thus any one species might represent a number of different gods... Sekhmet, Tefnut, Mehyt, Pakhet and Bastet, even Wadjyt, might all appear as an amulet of a lion-headed woman." (p 14)