Object Description
An exquisite dark grey-green serpentine amulet of a Horus falcon. Depicted standing on an integral rectangular plinth, finely modelled and executed, the head with prominent eyes and clearly defined facial markings, and characteristic short, sharp beak, with long talons, the wings held close to the body, the tips crossed over behind, the plinth shaped to accommodate the wing tips and tail feathers.
It has a hole on the back so it could have been worn as a pendant. The falcon is an animal sacred to Hours and it is often placed outside his temples as a statue. Egyptians had a great appreciation for the strength and velocity of this bird, thus they associated it with their chief divinity of the sky – Horus. Horus was usually depicted with a falcon’s head and a human body. He was a son of Osiris and Isis and with them formed the most important divine triad in Egyptian religion. He was worshipped throughout Egypt, sometimes as chief deity. He was also considered the ancestor of all pharaohs. In the afterlife he often presides during the weighing of one’s soul.