Coptic Amulets.

According to the Life of St. Anthony, the Great, of Egypt, the Egyptians were in the habit of embalming the bodies of the saints and martyrs, and of placing them not in graves but in their houses so that they might do honour to them. Anthony had entreated the bishops to order the people not to do this, but the custom continued. When he was dying he commanded those who were about him, saying : “ Dig a grave then, and bury me therein, and hide my body under the earth. And let these my words be observed carefully by you, and tell ye no man where ye lay me ; [and there I shall be] until the Resurrection of the dead, when I shall receive [again] this body without corruption” (Budge, Paradise of the Fathers, Vol. i. p. 72). This passage makes it quite clear that the Egyptian Christians continued to mummify their dead long after their conversion to Christianity, and the tombs of Egypt of the early Christian period support Anthony's statement. Anthony died about A.d. 360, and thus it is certain that the Egyptian Christians had been mummifying their dead for at least 260 years, for the introduction of Christianity into Egypt cannot be placed later than about A.d. 100. There is no satisfactory evidence showing under whose auspices the Christianizing of Egypt took place, though it is generally attributed to St. Mark, who began to preach in Alexandria about A.d. 69. Though the form of the Egyptian Religion which was in use between 200 B.c. and A.d. 100, with its doctrine of a Last Judgment and its fastings and prayers and asceticism generally, was an excellent preparation for the reception of Christianity by the Egyptians, when once their conversion was effected, they determined to break absolutely with the old pagan religion and its cults. They discarded the hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic scripts, and formulated an alphabet for themselves, which included the Greek alphabet and a number of conventional forms of old Egyptian characters ; in this mixed alphabet they wrote the Coptic version of the Scriptures. They rejected the spells and the Vignettes of the Book of the Dead, and abandoned the use of the funerary amulets of the ancient Egyptians, and all their amuletic symbols save one, viz. the sign 𓋹 ānkh which means “life, living.” What object this sign represented cannot be said, but as to the idea which both pagans and Egyptians associated with it there is no doubt. Gods and goddesses, and men and women, are seen holding it, and it seems that the life of every being, divine or human, depended upon his or her possession of it. From first to last the gods are seen carrying it in their right hands, and they gave life to their kings and servants presenting it to them. It has been suggested that 𓋹 is a conventional representation of some organ of the human body connected with procreation, and this view is probably correct. But be this as it may, the Egyptian Christian adopted it as an equivalent of the Cross of Christ, and it symbolized to them life everlasting. On the stele of Abraham (B.M., No. 1257) we have it in this form https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/02_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> with the letters https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/03_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> and Ω. On the stele of Plêinôs (B.M., No. 679) we have the ordinary Greek cross https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/04_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, the https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/05_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> and two ānkh crosses https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/02_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/02_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> On the stele of Sabinos (B.M. 1352) we have https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/05_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/02_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> and https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/03_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> and Ω. On another stele are cut figures of doves holding 𓋹 (B.M., 1327). Naville found a mummy with the suwastika 卐 drawn on the left shoulder (see Deir el-Bahari, ii, p. 5), but there is no proof that the mummy was that of a Christian. There is in the British Museum (No. 54051) a mummy of a child of the early Christian or late Roman period ; the hands are crossed over the breast, and in one he holds a cross https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/04_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> and in the other a flower (lotus (?) which suggests that the mummy is that of a girl). On a portion of a mummy swathing found at LYCOPOLIS is painted a Christian cross https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315030050/d6aab48f-28d0-48ea-a316-e04245f8d0a9/content/07_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> (No. 55056). On a very rare amulet which was given to the British Museum by Sir Rider Haggard, the Birth of Christ is represented (No. 469) ; Mary is seated under a tree and she holds 𓋹 in one hand; on the reverse is the sign 𓋹 and the legend, “One God in heaven.” As the woman is seated under a tree and not in a cave, it has been suggested that it is the birth of the Buddha which is represented.