The cowroid (or cauroid) was an ancient Egyptian seal-amulet that imitated the cowrie shell.
Use
Typically incorporated into a woman's girdle, cowroids would have had an apotropaic use protecting the wearer from unwanted forces affecting the associated area of the body, particularly during pregnancy.
History
See also: CowrieIn Pre-dynastic Egypt and Neolithic Southern Levant, cowrie shells were placed in the graves of young girls. The modified Levantine cowries were discovered ritually arranged around the skull in female burials. During the Bronze Age, cowries became more common as funerary goods, also associated with burials of women and children.
Dynastic Egypt
From the late Old Kingdom onwards, cowrie shells were being imitated in blue-glazed composition and other semi-precious stones, with gold and silver examples known from the Middle Kingdom. As time progressed, they corrupted into a simple back design devoid of a ventral opening. Cowroids were commonly used during the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate period, the 18th and 19th Dynasties, and the Saitic period.
Gallery
Pale blue glass cowroid, 18th Dynasty
Cowroid seal amulet inscribed with a Bolti fish
String of 46 cowroids inscribed with various hieroglyphs
Cowroid seal amulet inscribed with a decorative pattern
Cowroid steatite seal amulet with the name of the Hyksos King Apepi
References
- Steymans, Hans Ulrich; Quick, Laura; Vayntrub, Jacqueline (2024-11-28). Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible: Erwin Panofsky and Othmar Keel in Dialogue. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-567-69183-5.
- Benge, Elizabeth (2023-10-03). "The Ocean's Currency: Cowrie Shells in African Art". Art Institute Chicago.
- Golani, Amir (2014). "Cowrie Shells and their Imitations as Ornamental Amulets in Egypt and the Near East". Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranea: 71–94.
- Kovács 2008: 17
- Stern, Ephraim (1984). Excavations at Tel Mevorakh, 1973-1976: The Bronze Age. Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. p. 61.
