Standing monkey amulet

The standing faience amulet depicting a Chlorocebus aethiops, or grivet, an African savanna monkey, has notches as a decoration on its belly. The grivet is recognisable by its round head framed on both sides by a thick fur. The grivet has been known in Egypt since prehistoric times, and from the New Kingdom it was certainly imported from the South and from ancient Punt, i.e., today’s Eritrea. It is often portrayed as a pet of the female elite, and serves as a decoration for personal items, when in reality, keeping the animal unleashed is dangerous. Based on the behaviour of the males, the monkey may have symbolised masculinity, and thus, when worn as an amulet, it could have magically assisted in the reproductive cycle, both in this world, in birth, and the afterlife, in rebirth. On the other hand, females protect their offsprings for a long period of time, so maternal care could also have given the amulet fertility associations, just as the greenish colour of the monkey and the material of faience is symbolic of renewal.

The position of the animal reflects the appearance of the grivet: its paws rest on the tights, its outstretched legs are bent at the knee, while its long tail serves as a support. Because of these thin and therefore fragile parts, and, in order to make the glazed faience material – which is typical of the object type – more stable, the excess material between the legs and the tail was not removed, giving the statuette an angular appearance. Other similar amulets show that the owner further stabilised the object with two metal cords, looped through a ring on the back of the monkey to form another suspension for actual use. The statuettes, in the form of monkeys balancing on their tails, date from the Third Intermediate Period and later, in many cases from Naucratis, Cyprus, or Phoenicia.