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Seashells and Snails are known and used all over the world. They were used as raw materials for making ornaments and jewelry or as a source of food by eating the live animal inside. Seashells had special religious importance in many civilizations, especially the ancient Egyptian civilization, as shown through the actual use of shells as amulets or through simulations by making them of precious stones or metals like gold as amulets for protection. Shells also had funerary importance and were placed with the dead in the tombs among their offerings to benefit them in the other life. Many shells were found in several tombs in Egypt during the Neolithic period. Shells were a symbol of protection from the bad eye because of their similarity with the shape of the eye, so the early man thought that the shell prevented the "evil eye", where it was used as protection against evil, especially for women during pregnancy and childbirth. There were many other uses for shells, some seashells were used as containers for cosmetics or preserving colors, and some kinds of snails were used to extract dyes. Shells were also used as a means of social exchange or swap, commonly used as a means of commercial exchange. Shells still have ideological significance in many primitive tribes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kind of material can be found in Isiac sanctuaries, that is, those devoted to Isis, and her companion Sarapis, as well as the synnaoi theoi, Anubis and Harpocrates? To answer this question, we can study the sacral inventories, but they are few. Sundry information is also to be found in literary and epigraphical texts (especially dedications) and iconography, but all these sources have to be linked with the material discovered in sanctuaries. Three main groups of material can be identified: first of all, the statue and everything connected to it (such as garments and jewels); then, the material used to worship the god or goddess during everyday worship or on different feasts; finally, objects used to create a special atmosphere peculiar to a mystery cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expeditions to procure gemstones from mines in Egypt's marginal territories during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BC) are generally perceived as representing centralized, bureaucratized and hierarchical missions to essentially monopolized resources. Traditional ‘top-down’ approaches to the social context of mining in this period assume the pivotal role of the state in controlling such endeavours through large-scale centrally organized expeditions, as deduced from the epigraphic record. This article advances a ‘bottom-up’ approach to gemstone mining in the Middle Kingdom by the deployment of cross-cultural and cross-level theories in social archaeology to micro-level production data at three key mining sites in Egypt's marginal territories. Strategies of engagement and negotiation at local levels to get access to a local labour force and the source, rather than monopolization and state controlled procurement, are forwarded as significant aspects of Middle Kingdom gemstone mining outside the Nile Valley. Feminine imagery at gemstone mines may have constituted a ritual and symbolic device to foster solidarity and cohesion among a local labour force in Egypt's marginal zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]