The Amulets of the Museo Egizio

Integrated Approaches and Interpretative Categories in the Study of Decontextualized Objects

The Amulets of the Museo Egizio

Coordinator: Martina Terzoli

Team: XRAYLab Institute of Heritage Science – National Research Council (ISPC-CNR), Catania; Department of Physics, Università di Torino; INFN Turin Section; Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF)

Supervisor PhD: Prof. Dr. Angelica Lohwasser, University of Münster

This project aims at the reorganization, study, and publication of a corpus of approximately 2,000 amulets belonging to the Museo Egizio collection, the majority of which lack a clear archaeological context. The objective is to develop a methodological framework suitable for the analysis of decontextualized assemblages in museum contexts, maximizing their informational potential through the integration of typological, anthropological, and technological approaches. Within this framework, the PhD project dedicated to faience amulets represents a privileged case study for exploring these dynamics in greater depth.

The project also seeks to critically reassess Western typological and interpretative categories traditionally applied to the modern definition of “amulet” and, more broadly, to the concept of magic, examining their limits and applicability.

The research includes an initial phase of inventory reorganization, followed by a chrono-typological study of the artifacts, which has already been partially published online on the Museo Egizio collection website and is intended to culminate in a scholarly monograph. In parallel, targeted archaeometric investigations address these objects from the perspective of materiality, providing a complementary analytical layer and new insights into production choices, raw material procurement, and manufacturing techniques.

The research adopts an integrated approach combining anthropological analysis, typological study, and archaeometric investigation. In the first phase, the dataset of amulets in the Museo Egizio collection will be consolidated and expanded through the reorganization of inventory data, revision of chronological attributions, and systematic comparison with materials from other collections and well-documented archaeological contexts. This process will enable an updated chrono-typological classification of the objects and the identification of homogeneous groups based on morphological, dimensional, and functional criteria.

In parallel, the material aspects of the amulets will be investigated through non-invasive archaeometric analyses, in particular XRF analysis and other diagnostic techniques applied to faience and other materials. The integration of typological, technological, and scientific data will allow for the reconstruction of production processes and technological choices. The combined interpretation of these datasets will enable an exploration of the relationships between form, material, and function of amulets, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of this class of objects within museum collections.

The results include the publication of a scientific monograph dedicated to the amulets of the Museo Egizio’s collection. It also includes the development of an exhibition concept dedicated to magic in ancient Egypt, based on the anthropological framework developed within the project, with the aim of encouraging a critical reflection on modern interpretative categories such as “magic”, “religion”, and “science”, and on their applicability to the systems of thought of ancient Egypt. The project also includes the completion of the data update in SiME for the cataloguing and online sharing of approximately 2000 amulets, with high-resolution images, updated descriptions, and 3D models. Finally, it includes the development of a future research line on the faience of the Museo Egizio, with the reorganization and systematic study of all materials.

Links

Exhibition in the series In the Scholar's Workshop , “Exploring the World of Magic: Amulets and Faïence”: https://www.museoegizio.it/esplora/notizie/esplorare-il-mondo-della-magia-amuleti-e-faience%e2%80%af-la-nuova-mostra-del-ciclo-nel-laboratorio-dello-studioso/

The amulets of the Museo Egizio online: https://museoegizio.it/explore/news/online-gli-amuleti-del-museo

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The Amulets of the Museo Egizio

The Amulets of the Museo Egizio

Visit

Events

Collection and research

Touring exhibitions

Who we are

Fondazione Trasparente

HR and tenders

Press