Egyptian art - Shen ring amulet - symbol of divine protection

Shen Amulet

Dimensions :-

Width - 9 cm / 3-1/2 inches

Height - 9.3 cm / 3-5/8 inches

Depth - 2 cm / 3/4 inch



On offer here for the very first time I present my latest amuletic creation - The Shen ring.
The Shen is another of many ancient Egyptian protection symbols but it specifically represents eternal protection. Anything encircled by the Shen is to be seen as divinely protected. Like the Ankh, the Tyet knot of Isis and the Sa, the Shen ring is yet another important ancient Egyptian knot. Ancient Egyptians invented many of the first universal knots and thus regarded them highly as a sign of order over chaos which is essentially what civilisation is esteemed to be.

The stretched form of the Shen is far more well known and illustrates the Shen's purpose and power. You may have heard of it. The Cartouche. An evocative word in the modern language, the cartouche is a lengthened Shen and is to be seen filled with the hieroglyphs of a king, queen, goddess or god's name. The cartouche is easily spotted in lines of text concerning royal or godly prerogatives.

It is interesting to note the name cartouche stems from Napoleonic times when the emperor and his army were stranded in Egypt. Napoleon's scientists, artists and savants were surveying Egypt's wonders and manufactured spectacular volumes of illustrations and data of the surviving monuments. During this pre-cursor to archaeological thinking and certainly before the decipherment of hieroglyphs, they noted how similar the cartridges used in the canons of war were similar in profile to certain groups of hieroglyphs that were encircled. Cartouche is French for cartridge. An elongated oval arsenal with a flat bottom gave us this embraced term in Egyptology.

Nekhbet or the sky god Horus were most often shown holding the Shen and as the patron goddess of upper Egypt, Nekhbet brought this symbol into the mix of a unified Egypt. She was the counterpart deity to 'Wadjet' the lower Egyptian deity and together they were known as 'the two ladies'.

If still available in store, please check out the Nekhbet relief fragment which shows her clasping the Shen in her talons......and if you haven't been acquainted with the Napoleonic 'Description De La Egypte'
...I suggest you do some digital archaeology and explore what the first explorers saw with awe.