Les pendentifs porte-amulettes puniques : une mise à jour

Abstract

This article attempts to establish an exhaustive catalogue of a particularly significant artefact of Carthaginian and Phoenician-Punic funerary practice. This concerns amulet cases – whether made of precious metal or not – from the most elementary tubular forms to the most elaborate ones, illustrated by Egyptian zoocephalous examples. These cases contained finely worked coiled bands, considered to have a high protective value – for the living as well as for the deceased in their journey to the afterlife. In this singular category, investigations were pursued in the Eastern Mediterranean, and more specifically in Egypt, with a view to defining and confirming or not the origin of this unrivalled innovative design which, according to current knowledge, seems to owe as much as its contents to the workshops of the Western Mediterranean, Carthage and Tharros in particular.

Keywords

• Case
• scroll-amulet
• typology
• geographical distribution
• chronology
• Egyptian deity