In the Memphite creation myth, the creator god Ptah brought everything in the universe into being simply by speaking their names. And in Egypt’s royal palaces, laws were enacted, justice was dispensed, and policy made simply through the words spoken by Pharaoh himself – a truth powerfully underlined by a document signed by Egypt’s last Queen, Cleopatra VII, with the Greek word ginesthoi (‘make it happen!’; P.Bingen 45). Every day, in the temples, the same prayers were recited, and the names of the gods were spoken to enable their statue to breathe, in a ceremony known as the ‘opening of the mouth’ (wpt-r). These examples demonstrate the power of the spoken word in Ancient Egypt. Writing words down, so that they could be recited out loud later, was an important tool not only for transmitting information, but also for ensuring the prevailing of order (ma’at) at the expense of chaos (izf.t). In fact, the emphasis on words was so great that the name (rn) was considered an integral aspect of the soul; as long as the name was spoken, the spirit (ka) could live on, but as soon as it was forgotten, a second, permanent, death was suffered.

One important way in which words were used was on seals. Seals had two purposes, the first of which was eminently practical. Seals were an important mark of ownership, which could be applied to goods in one’s possession both to prevent theft and to display ownership for the purposes of taxation. Officials who might have to sign their names hundreds of times – for example, the customs officer Ahmose-Sa-Neith, whose seal impression survives from the bustling port of Naukratis (British Museum EA27574) – avoided having to write out their often-lengthy names and titles through the use of seals. And seals could verify an official’s presence and authority, acting as an important visual indicator of his connection to Pharaoh. But seals also had a second, magical or spiritual, function.

This ring bears a seal in the form of a cartouche. A coil of rope, the cartouche was a protective device used to offer spiritual protection to certain of the Pharaoh’s five traditional names. Queens, too, can have their names protected in a cartouche, but this privilege is exclusively reserved for the Great Royal Wife (hmt nswt wrt), Pharaoh’s primary spouse. Importantly, cartouches are never used for any other names: minor queens, princes, priests, commoners, and even gods, were not ordinarily afforded this honour (though, in the gods’ case, the protection was simply not needed). However, in this case, the cartouche does in fact contain the name of a god. The beginning of the inscription reads ‘Amun-Ra, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands’. Amun, the chief god who rose to prominence during Egypt’s New Kingdom (1550 BC – 1069 BC), was merged with the solar and creator deity Ra sometime during the reign of Ahmose I (mid-Sixteenth Century BC). His epithet, ‘Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands’ (nb nswt twy) refers to his role as patron of the Pharaoh and protector of the dual kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt. The final part of the inscription is harder to read, given the ambiguity of the letter on the right, which may be read as a truncated version of y (depicted as a reed, Gardiner sign M17) or as a slightly curvaceous netjer (depicted as a holy standard, Gardiner sign R8). If the latter is the case, the phrase may read ‘god of the Seat of Ra’, with ‘Seat of Ra’ being the epithet of an Egyptian town or temple, possibly Edfu in Upper Egypt, known in other texts as ‘the Seat of Ra-Horakhty’, another syncretised version of the god Ra.

The design of the ring – with the bezel given a slight curve, the band of the ring thick and rising to the bezel as a ‘v’, and the cartouche itself being exceptionally long – dates this ring to the very end of the New Kingdom. An era known as the Third Intermediate Period, it was a time of political disunity and factionalism, in which the central government of Egypt collapsed following the disastrous reign of Ramses XI, the tenth and final king of the Twentieth Dynasty. A series of weak Pharaohs, and Egypt’s economic ruin following a series of military incursions into Egypt’s borders, had enabled the powerful priests of Amun at Thebes to begin to act without consulting the government in Memphis. The temples of Amun owned something like two-thirds of all the temple lands in Egypt, and around ninety percent of the ships and many other resources. Eventually, the High Priests of Amun at Thebes began to depict themselves as Pharaohs in their own right, Given this context, the importance of this ring is clarified. In the absence of a strong Pharaoh, whose name would usually be enclosed within a cartouche, people were looking to the priesthood of Amun, and to the god himself, for guidance and authority. By enclosing Amun-Ra’s name in a cartouche, and by emphasising his epithet as ‘Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands’, Amun is assimilated to a king on earth. The significant weight of gold in this ring – 90 g (3 oz) – indicates that it was intended to be worn by someone of high rank, perhaps linked to the alternative nexus of power in Thebes.

References: Rings of a similar design, depicting the names and epithets of Amun, and executed in faience rather than gold, can be found in Baltimore (Walters Art Museum 42.416, 42.418). Another similarly shaped ring can be found in Jerusalem (Israel Museum 97.63.143).