Amulets of Power

For the most part, amulets of power are inanimate objects imbued with authority and power, or were representative of a certain condition, state, or quality which the deceased desired to enjoy in the Afterlife. A number of them take the form of royal regalia like crowns and scepters or royal creatures like the cobra and sphinx. Their appearance marks the democratization of funerary religion in Egypt. What had once been the prerogative of royalty and a few highly favored courtiers was now available to all. Other amulets in this category have divine or cosmic associations, which again would originally have been intended solely for the promotion of the royal Afterlife. The remainder are concerned with the funerary ritual.