Amulet Pendant

Los Millares Society

Large-eyes idols in human form have been found inside homes and in the shared areas of Los Millares, which emphasizes the realm of beliefs and the role played by the Shaman in everyday life. Some idols have a small hole in the form, so they were probably used as pendant amulets.

Such is the case with this ivory horn-shaped idol pendant with eyes, a triangular-rectangular cross-section, convex on the longer side and a cylindrical perforation on the shorter side. It has tan coloured surfaces with an excellent polished finish and an incised symbolic decoration on the longest side which recalls certain anthropomorphic facial traits (eyes, eyebrows, hair etc.). These are represented schematically. The next compositional design consists of a pair of hollowed out asymmetrical eyes. Above these is an arched superciliary eyebrow motif joining at the centre and in the lower part are six small strokes at right angles to the upper edge of the pendant. Under the eyes are two sets of three parallel arches, arranged in the opposite direction to the previous arches. One of these extends in a zigzag fashion along the left-hand side, depicting three acute downward-facing angles at the edge. On the reverse face are four angles of the same nature. Of these only the top two directly link up with the side angles. They are a schematic representation of the "facial tattoo" and long hair.

Material: Ivory
Dimensions: Length 6 cm; Maximum width 2,20 cm; Minimum width 1,70 cm; Maximum thickness 0,80 cm; Minimum thickness 0,30 cm
Provenance: Los Millares, Santa Fe de Mondújar (Almería): Fort 5, section 107 (A.N.), sector X, level 2
Excavation, 1987, Arribas Palau, Antonio / Molina, Fernando