The Amulets for Woman Giving Birth in the Gaye Çarmıklı Collection and Sadberk Hanım Museum
Çilem UYGUN - Melih ARSLAN
Abstract
The amulets of mold-made glass depicted a nude squatting fat female figure, with both hands placed in her genital area are a group of finds that are concentrated in ancient cities on the Egyptian, Levant and North African coasts during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. This group of artefacts used for amulets is known in Anatolia. There are three examples from the Gaye Çarmıklı Collection and the Sadberk Hanım Museum. Only one of the amulets, which attract attention for its original and little-known iconography, is known where it was found.
Amulet-1 found in the Dindarlı village of Manisa, where the ancient Lydia region is located. Due to lack of the certain find-context it was dated by analogy method based on the few published samples. The earliest examples of amulets are dated to the 4th century BC and they continued to be more intensively in the Hellenistic Period until the Roman Period. Amulet-1 and 2, which are so similar as to suggest that they may have been made from the same mould, have been dated to the end of the 2nd and 1st century BC on the basis of their similarity to the British Museum’s Egyptian sample. A Late Hellenistic date is suggested for the Amulet-3, whose stylistic differences are observed.
The terracotta samples of nude squatting fat female figures found in Egypt were identified by the researchers with the “Baubo”, which mentioned in the myth of the goddess Demeter, and this definition has preserved its validity despite its controversial iconography. These figures, which are believed to increase the fertility of women and make the social workforce sustainable by protecting the mother and child at the same time, have been associated with the local fertility goddess of each culture with a depiction pattern similar to the Prehistoric Period “Mother Goddesses”. In this process, the definition of “Baubo” was recommended because of the connection of the cult of Demeter-Persephone with women and childbirth, and then the new identification as Isis-Aphrodite, Omphale and Kotys acquired currency. In fact, while the iconographic content of the figures goes much earlier than the figures called “Baubo”, the protective function undertaken by the amulets for birth and afterward is as up-to-date as reminiscent of today’s traditions.
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