Engraved gem with

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

Engraved gems. Magical amulet. Obverse: Harpocrates in profile to the left, crouching upon the lotus bloom. His left hand is raised to his lips and in his right hand he holds the flail. The lotus plant upon which he sits is composed of the usual central bloom and two smaller, budded stalks; it grows from the top either of an altar or a naos (there seems to be a doorway carved into the base of the pediment which suggests a shrine or naos). To the left of this central subject is the erect lion-headed serpent. Chnoubis; to the right strides an ibis which is attached by means of a stretched cord to one of the budded stalks of the lotus. Arranged in the field above the ibis and Chnoubis, and encircling the elevated Harpocrates, are various animals (badly worn)- three crocodiles, a falcon and crab, two goats and two indistinct falcons. Reverse: inscription in two lines. Intaglio cutting, serpentine, 28 mm x 22 mm, circa 200- circa 400. Roman Imperial.

Image data

Accession Number: CG 498
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: 572.42kB
Exposure time: 1/15
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 32/1
Captured: 2014:04:24 16:22:34

Key words

3rd Century 4th Century AD altar amulet animals antiquity birds Chnoubis Chnoumis Chnuphis crocodile deity engraved gem falcon Fitz_ANT gemstones goats gods Harpocrates Heru Horus ibis incised intaglio intaglio cutting lotus magical amulet mythological mythology naos Ra Roman Roman Imperial serpentine shrine temple Xnoubis

Citation for print

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


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025)
            "Engraved gem with "
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-201372 Accessed: 2025-12-25 06:42:35

Citation for Wikipedia

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


            {{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-201372
            |title=Engraved gem with 
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-25 06:42:35|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://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/images/media-201371

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_20498_1_201404_jas244_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Magical amulet"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Engraved gem with </figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>