Description: Right, carved wedjat eye amulet with a bellied form. Incised decoration on one side featuring brow with vertical lines, a long horizontal line beneath, the eye with a long cosmetic line extension and the hawk markings indicated by three vertical lines with the stone carved out before the curved line of the cheek marking. Longitudinal piercing for suspension just below the eyebrow line. The carver made use of a natural darker element of the stone that appears as a faint pupil for the eye.
Collector's Marks: remains of collector's marks on lower proper right on back side of amulet - both read 48.3 with the lower being fragmentary, lower in black ink, upper in brown.
Cultural Significance: The Eye of Horus/ wedjat/ udjat eye was one of the most popular and long lived of ancient Egyptian amulets, known from the Old Kingdom through the Ptolemaic period. The amulet was worn in life and placed in burials. It symbolised the healthy eye of Horus, promising protection and life. The right eye was connected to the sun while the left was connected to the moon. Wedjat eyes were made in many materials with a preference for blue/green/black and red/gold/yellow for the colours' symbolic values. The Book of the Dead Chapter 140 features references to the significance of the wedjat eyes in afterlife rites. In later periods the wedjat eyes were placed on the mummy by the head, throat, chest, stomach, arms, and hands.
Comparanda: UCL 68089, 52351; Louvre E11843, E13708, N2090; Boston MFA 01.7281, 29.1537, 35.24; British Museum EA14618.

Notes:  See W. Petrie, Amulets 1914, 138l; C. Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt. 1994, p. 43-4, pl. 46 ; Reisner, Cairo Catalogue Generale 5767.