Engraved steatite gem with an ibis

An image of Engraved gems. Magical amulet. Obverse: altar table or door and lintel of a naos, with three daggers, nails or plant-like stalks emanating from a point in the centre of its top. To the furthest left of these projections is tied an ibis; the straight cord is pulled taut and comes to the centre of the bird's back. The ibis strides left with a hieratic gait. On either side of the bird and altar-like structure, and suspended level with the bird's breast, are two vaguely S-shaped squiggles, possibly meant as uraei; above, a star, inscribed below the ground line with a magical name. The reverse is blank. Intaglio cutting, grey steatite, 20 mm x 18 mm, circa 200-circa 400 AD. Roman Imperial.

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Engraved gems. Magical amulet. Obverse: altar table or door and lintel of a naos, with three daggers, nails or plant-like stalks emanating from a point in the centre of its top. To the furthest left of these projections is tied an ibis; the straight cord is pulled taut and comes to the centre of the bird's back. The ibis strides left with a hieratic gait. On either side of the bird and altar-like structure, and suspended level with the bird's breast, are two vaguely S-shaped squiggles, possibly meant as uraei; above, a star, inscribed below the ground line with a magical name. The reverse is blank. Intaglio cutting, grey steatite, 20 mm x 18 mm, circa 200-circa 400 AD. Roman Imperial.

Image data

Accession Number: CG 503
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/32.0
Focal length: 105
Camera: NIKON D800
Photographer name: Jaymes Sinclair
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 684 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 318.19kB
Exposure time: 1/15
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 32/1
Captured: 2014:04:25 10:47:36

Key words

3rd Century 4th Century AD altar amulet antiquity birds bound dagger engraved gem Fitz_ANT gemstones ibis incised inscribed inscriptions intaglio intaglio cutting language magical amulet Roman Roman Imperial script shrine texts tied writing

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Engraved steatite gem with an ibis"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-201387 Accessed: 2024-11-15 08:35:23

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-201387
            |title=Engraved steatite gem with an ibis
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-15 08:35:23|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-201387

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/ant/ant46/CG_20503_1_201404_jas244_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Magical amulet"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Engraved steatite gem with an ibis</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>