Amulets

This facsimile edition of the 1972 reissue of Flinders Petries 1914 pioneering typological catalogue of Egyptian amulets, is one of a number of such catalogues to be reissued in this new series. Remarkably although points of detail emanating from more recent research have surfaced it remains unsurpassed in its comprehensive description, typological classification, and interpretation. While an absence of reasoned argument for the dating of his various groups is a weak point of Petries study from the point of view of modern scholarship, his attention to detail and careful consideration of typology and potential meaning, borne of decades of observation, means that this, and the other catalogues in the series, remain as invaluable reference books for Egyptologists.   Based on examination of his own extensive collection of Egyptian artifacts, Petrie presents a typologically ordered catalogue divided into seven main groups defined on the basis of interpretation rather than subject: amulets of similar kind, for example, relating to body parts; power; property; protection; human-headed; animal-headed; and animal gods. Each class of object is described along with its varieties: material, distribution, position within burials, its chronological position as defined by Petrie himself, and its meaning interpreted. Collections containing examples are listed and hundreds of objects are presented in photographs and a selection of burial associations illustrated by coffin plans. See more