Divinatory Objects, Talismans, and Amulets

About

Across cultures, people have made objects to read the future or ward off harm. In Shang China diviners cracked heated ox bones and turtle shells and inscribed the answers; Babylonian priests used clay models of sheep livers to interpret omens; Yoruba babalawo priests trace signs in powder on a carved Ifá tray whose rim often bears the face of Èṣù, the messenger.

Amulets and talismans are instead carried or worn for protection and luck. Egyptian scarabs and eye-of-Horus charms guarded the living and the dead, freeborn Roman boys wore a bulla locket, and Ottoman talismanic shirts were covered in Qur'anic verses and magic squares. Hands, eyes, knots and sacred words recur worldwide. Such objects are often small, worn smooth by handling, pierced for a cord, or inscribed with words meant to act rather than simply be read. The American enameller William Harper has drawn on this language.