Egyptian fertility magic within Phoenician and Punic culture

Abstract

Egyptian type objects of magical nature (scarabs and amulets in form of Egyptian divinities and powerful symbols, commonly made of steatite and faience) are found all over the Mediterranean during the earlier 1st mill. B.C.: as votive offerings in temples of fertilty deities - in the Phoenician sphere, e.g. at Byblos, Sarepta, Kition etc.; in graves, but almost exclusively in those of women and children (e.g. in a grave at 'Atlit, a Phoenician cemetery in northern Palestine, between the legs of a woman); as well as in Punic Tophets (Carthage, Sulcis, Tharros). These archaeological circumstances show that the genuine Egyptian amuletic force of the small 0 bjects concerning the protection of women and children as well as female fertility was taken over by the Phoenicians more or less unaltered. The known Aegyptiaca from Malta and Gozo fit in best with the picture of the remaining Phoenician world by their typology.