COUTEAU MAGIQUE FRAGMENTAIRE EN IVOIRE

Ivory magical knives served to protect women at the moment of childbirth; their decoration was restricted to the depiction of a series of demons who would magically turn their aggressive instincts against those who would do evil to the mother and child. Both sides of this piece of ivory are decorated in a similar fashion with various demons and deities: a serpent, a crocodile, a brazier, the god Aha-the fighter-, a hippopotamus, a Seth animal, another hippo, a knife, the frog-goddess Heqet and a winged griffin.