Late Period / Ptolemaic Period, ca. 664-332 BC. A fragment of the edge of a small unidentified magical object which originally must have had a quadrangular shape with a niche in the centre. The short side (Aside), features an engraved scene that refers to the context of the magical texts. From left to right the ibis-headed god Thoth with a lunar crescent on its head can be seen, standing with his right arm raised and his left arm outstretched with his hand gripping a scribe's palette. The god is identified by a short hieroglyphic text bearing one of his titles: "Lord of Hermopolis". This is followed by the figure of the god Horus in the form of a falcon with a double crown on his head, which as a sign of victory rests on the back of an oryx, an animal which in Egyptian mythology symbolizes the forces of evil. The scene is accompanied by the word "destroy". The following figure depicts Horus the child standing on crocodiles, protected by the aegis of the god Bes: it is probably the depiction of so-called Horus stelae widespread especially in the Late and Ptolemaic Period. This scene is taken from the repertoire of divine representations with magical and apotropaic value engraved on statues and stelae datable between the end of the Late Period and the Ptolemaic Period. The two short sides, originally divided into two lines of text each, present the beginning of a hieroglyphic text too fragmentary to be identified. The upper face, (Bside), which originally had a large central niche, bears the following short hieroglyphic text: "Back you, rebel!". In an anomalous way, even the lower face (E-side), was originally inscribed. Of this text, arranged in horizontal lines, part of the first two lines is preserved. an anomaly is found in them: the first hieroglyph is oriented in the opposite way to the rest of the text. The inscription in the first line reads: "in front of .... against the one the who is in the water"; the second line of hieroglyphs is damaged by scratches and is not easy to read: "do not advance towards him(?)". Among the aforementioned sentences, the first two seem to have been extrapolated from spell 5 of the Metternich stela, while the third does not seem to have any correspondence with the texts of the aforementioned stela. By way of hypothesis, this fragment, given its small size and given the central groove or niche, could be what remains of the support of a small stela, in all probability depicting the god Hous the child on crocodiles. The detailed report will accompany the item.Size: L:36.3mm / W:58.9mm ; 96.56gProvenance: Property of a London Art gallery; formerly in a UK collection; previously acquired from French dealer in 2023; ex. Pierre Berge, sale 2007; ex. E. Strobel collection, Nurenberg, Germany.