gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio, amulets, Egypt

Sinkankas: The noted author declares this to be the first in a series of works on Egyptian antiquities. After two chapters explaining amulets and their significance in Egypt, Petrie describes the ancient types of amulets and concludes with a chapter on the placement of amulets, the properties of the stones—some of them gemstones—used in their manufacture, and provides a list of the amulets. Many hundreds are shown photographically on the plates, including examples made from stones, gemstones, and a few engraved gems. Petrie’s discussion of engraved gemstones (p. 52) indicates that these, along with more common stones, were frequently used to make amulets. This is a scarce work, of which a later authority, E. Knight (Amentet, p. x), writes: “No serious student of Egyptian amulets can well dispense with this remarkable work, in which two hundred and seventy different kinds of amulets are described, and some thousands of specimens illustrated. It covers the whole field with painstaking and characteristic thoroughness, and for the first time offers a system of scientific classification which is simple, workable, and, insofar as modern knowledge goes, approximately complete.”