magic bricks

OIM E6776 and OIM E6777 are two rather small magical bricks measuring 6.5 by 4.0 by 1.5 cm - quite easy to miss with all the other beautiful objects displayed in the Joseph and Mary Grimshaw Egyptian Gallery. Members of the Egypt Exploration Society excavated them in tomb D13 at Abydos and gave them to the Oriental Institute as part of the distribution of finds to excavation supporters. Buried in Abydos tomb D13 was the Twenty-fifth Dynasty vizier Nespaqashuty C, father of the vizier Nespamedu (Abydos tomb D57) and grandfather of the vizier Nespaqashuty D. Portions of Nespaqashuty D’s tomb (Theban Tomb 312) are also on display in the Egyptian Gallery. If Nespaqashuty C had a complete assemblage of magical bricks, the other two bricks have been lost or destroyed in antiquity. Damage to both bricks occurred at some point since the amuletic figure of OIM 6776 and the amuletic wick of OIM 6777, which left indentations and a hole respectfully, have never been discovered.

Text of OIM E6776

O’ you who comes to entangle, I will not allow you to entangle me. O’ you who comes to assault me, I will not allow you to assault me. May I entangle you. I will dispel you. I am the protection of the Osiris, vizier, Nespaqashuty. On the north, facing to the south.

Text of OIM E6777

I am the one who drags things to block the hidden ones and who repels the activities of the one who displaces those who are in the torch of the necropolis. I have lit up the desert. I have confused their path. I am the protection of the Osiris, vizier, Nespaqashuty. On the south, facing to the north.

Text by Foy Scalf. Adapted from News and Notes vol. 203 (fall, 2009

 https://oi.uchicago.edu/collections/highlights/highlights-collection-egypt