Antiquarium Arborense - Museo archeologico Giuseppe Pau Oristano

Collection highlights: the God Thot

31 maggio 2020

The Antiquarium Arborense houses a Phoenician amulet (7th-6th century B.C.) which represents an itiphallic baboon crouching on a flat base.

The find comes from the archaeological excavations of Su Murru Mannu in the tophet area of Tharros.

The dimensions of the artifact are unusual (4.8 cm) and the iconography is quite rare in Punic rituals, completely absent in Sardinia.
The accuracy of the anatomic details gives a naturalistic aspect to the animal; the front part of the cloak shows a rich decoration.
The main source of iconographic and stylistic inspiration of Phoenician workshops is the Egyptian artistic repertoire.

It is probable that, in Western area, specialised centres produced the most popular iconographies of the Egyptian pantheon, sometimes mixed with the images from the Phoenician and Punic world.

The object belongs to the category of personal talismans but, being incomplete, we do not know if it was part of a necklace or another valuable object.
It was undoubtedly a personal talisman with apotropaic and protective functions.

This rare amulet represents the god Thot, patron of calculus, writing (of which he was the inventor) and science. An impartial God, he was lord of laws and guardian of the earthly and heavenly order.
In our case the divine figure had to protect in the afterlife the soul of the little dead.