Phoenician and Punic Amulet Cases: Gold Caskets for Sacred Images

Among the most refined amulets of the Phoenician and Punic world are small hollow cylinders of gold, silver or bronze, closed at the top by a lid in the shape of an animal head. Inside them archaeologists have sometimes found thin rolled metal sheets engraved with divine figures. These cases, hung at the neck, combined the value of jewellery with that of a hidden image, and they are among the most original creations of Punic goldsmithing.

Shape and materials

The cases generally measure a few centimetres. The lid often reproduces the head of a lion, a falcon or a lion-headed deity, such as the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, while the opposite end is closed by a flat or rounded base. A suspension loop allowed them to be worn on a chain or cord. Examples have been found in the cemeteries of Carthage and Sardinia, in particular at Tharros, and date mainly to the seventh and sixth centuries BC. Some gold examples are decorated with granulation and filigree, techniques in which Phoenician goldsmiths excelled.

The hidden sheets

The sheets contained in the cases, when preserved, bear rows of Egyptian-inspired figures: animal-headed deities, wedjat eyes, uraei, winged scarabs, solar discs. Some carry short inscriptions in Phoenician. The fact that they were rolled up and sealed reveals an important aspect of the ancient mentality: protection did not depend on the possibility of seeing the images, but on their presence in contact with the body, kept in a precious container.

The same principle, the efficacy of an enclosed text or image, is found in many Mediterranean traditions: from the silver scrolls of Jerusalem to Greek lamellae, down to the written amulets of the Roman and Byzantine periods. The Punic cases are among the earliest and most elegant witnesses to this idea. It is possible that the Punic sheets too were accompanied, when the cases were closed, by words or gestures of consecration that remain unknown to us.

Egyptian influence

Phoenician culture absorbed a great deal from Egypt, with which the coastal cities of the Levant, such as Byblos, Tyre and Sidon, had maintained relations for centuries. Faience amulets with Bes, Ptah, Isis and the wedjat eye were common in Punic tombs, some imported, others produced locally. The cases represent an original reworking: the repertoire of images is Egyptian, but the shape of the object and its function are typical of the Phoenician and Punic world.

The sign of Tanit

Alongside Egyptian motifs, Punic art developed a symbol of its own, the so-called sign of Tanit: a triangle topped by a horizontal bar and a disc, resembling a stylised figure with outstretched arms. It appears on the stelae of the sanctuaries known as tophets, on pottery, floors and jewellery. Its precise meaning is debated, but the modern name links it to the goddess Tanit, the principal female deity of Carthage, worshipped together with Baal Hammon.

The amulet cases show how a people of merchants and seafarers could turn foreign influences into new objects. They were small portable caskets that held sacred images and accompanied their wearers along the routes of the Mediterranean, from the coast of Lebanon to the islands of the West, and finally into the grave. Few objects tell as well the story of the encounter between cultures that marked the Iron Age Mediterranean.