Amulet Atlas

Amulet Atlas

worn, buried, nailed above the door — and what each one is meant to stop

286records
109kinds of charm
118countries named
2535kin links
736claims, each attributed
10000 BCEearliest dated
197still carried
365sources

Every hemisphere, from a bead somebody drilled five thousand years ago to a sticker on a phone. Each record says what the thing is, what its carriers say it stops — named, quoted, and never tested here — and where and when it is documented. Where a tradition asks that something not be published, this atlas prints the ask instead of the thing.

The map Five thousand years, one axis What it stops Where it goes Pick me one

Where the records are

Afghanistan — 5 recordsAlbania — 10 recordsAlgeria — 8 recordsAngola — 3 recordsArgentina — 1 recordsArmenia — 3 recordsAustralia — 13 recordsAustria — 4 recordsAzerbaijan — 3 recordsBahamas — no record here names itBangladesh — 5 recordsBelarus — no record here names itBelgium — 7 recordsBelize — no record here names itBenin — 9 recordsBhutan — 8 recordsBolivia — 8 recordsBosnia and Herz. — 3 recordsBotswana — no record here names itBrazil — 10 recordsBrunei — 1 recordsBulgaria — 11 recordsBurkina Faso — no record here names itBurundi — no record here names itCambodia — 13 recordsCameroon — 4 recordsCanada — 15 recordsCentral African Rep. — no record here names itChad — no record here names itChile — no record here names itChina — 49 recordsColombia — no record here names itCongo — 2 recordsCosta Rica — no record here names itCroatia — 2 recordsCuba — 3 recordsCyprus — 1 recordsCzechia — no record here names itCôte d'Ivoire — 1 recordsDem. Rep. Congo — 6 recordsDenmark — 4 recordsDjibouti — no record here names itDominican Rep. — 3 recordsEcuador — no record here names itEgypt — 68 recordsEl Salvador — no record here names itEq. Guinea — no record here names itEritrea — no record here names itEstonia — 4 recordsEthiopia — 9 recordsFalkland Is. — no record here names itFiji — 7 recordsFinland — 2 recordsFr. S. Antarctic Lands — no record here names itFrance — 20 recordsGabon — no record here names itGambia — no record here names itGeorgia — 1 recordsGermany — 23 recordsGhana — 12 recordsGreece — 53 recordsGreenland — 4 recordsGuatemala — 3 recordsGuinea — no record here names itGuinea-Bissau — no record here names itGuyana — no record here names itHaiti — 10 recordsHonduras — no record here names itHungary — 1 recordsIceland — 2 recordsIndia — 49 recordsIndonesia — 16 recordsIran — 30 recordsIraq — 35 recordsIreland — 20 recordsIsrael — 37 recordsItaly — 74 recordsJamaica — 1 recordsJapan — 44 recordsJordan — 1 recordsKazakhstan — no record here names itKenya — 2 recordsKosovo — no record here names itKuwait — no record here names itKyrgyzstan — no record here names itLaos — 9 recordsLatvia — 3 recordsLebanon — 8 recordsLesotho — no record here names itLiberia — no record here names itLibya — 5 recordsLithuania — 7 recordsLuxembourg — no record here names itMadagascar — 1 recordsMalawi — no record here names itMalaysia — 8 recordsMali — 7 recordsMauritania — no record here names itMexico — 20 recordsMoldova — 5 recordsMongolia — 9 recordsMontenegro — no record here names itMorocco — 11 recordsMozambique — no record here names itMyanmar — 10 recordsN. Cyprus — no record here names itNamibia — no record here names itNepal — 22 recordsNetherlands — 4 recordsNew Caledonia — no record here names itNew Zealand — 14 recordsNicaragua — no record here names itNiger — 4 recordsNigeria — 11 recordsNorth Korea — no record here names itNorth Macedonia — 6 recordsNorway — 3 recordsOman — 2 recordsPakistan — 17 recordsPalestine — 14 recordsPanama — 1 recordsPapua New Guinea — no record here names itParaguay — no record here names itPeru — 9 recordsPhilippines — 13 recordsPoland — 9 recordsPortugal — 7 recordsPuerto Rico — 5 recordsQatar — no record here names itRomania — 7 recordsRussia — 16 recordsRwanda — no record here names itS. Sudan — no record here names itSaudi Arabia — 6 recordsSenegal — 10 recordsSerbia — 3 recordsSierra Leone — 2 recordsSlovakia — no record here names itSlovenia — 1 recordsSolomon Is. — no record here names itSomalia — no record here names itSomaliland — no record here names itSouth Africa — 1 recordsSouth Korea — 16 recordsSpain — 28 recordsSri Lanka — 10 recordsSudan — 10 recordsSuriname — no record here names itSweden — 5 recordsSwitzerland — 5 recordsSyria — 22 recordsTaiwan — 13 recordsTajikistan — no record here names itTanzania — no record here names itThailand — 31 recordsTimor-Leste — no record here names itTogo — 6 recordsTrinidad and Tobago — no record here names itTunisia — 8 recordsTurkey — 42 recordsTurkmenistan — no record here names itUganda — no record here names itUkraine — 3 recordsUnited Arab Emirates — 1 recordsUnited Kingdom — 81 recordsUnited States of America — 77 recordsUruguay — no record here names itUzbekistan — no record here names itVanuatu — no record here names itVenezuela — no record here names itVietnam — 5 recordsW. Sahara — no record here names itYemen — 2 recordsZambia — no record here names itZimbabwe — no record here names iteSwatini — no record here names itthe equator

none here1–23–45–78–1011–2021+records

A country with no rows has no record here that names it. That is a fact about this atlas, not about the country. The gaps are listed on /coverage/. The map, in full →

The signs

Drawn for this atlas from published descriptions, not traced from any one object.

The beetle2055 BCE to nowThe bell100 BCE to nowThe crescent2300 BCE to nowThe cross101 CE to nowThe eye3000 BCE to nowThe fig fist200 BCE to nowThe fish101 CE to nowThe footprintundatedThe hand800 BCE to nowThe hornundatedThe key3000 BCE to nowThe knot3100 BCE to nowThe lion2040 BCE – 900 CEThe mirrorundatedThe name700 BCE to nowThe number square190 BCE to nowThe open palm800 BCE to nowThe phallusundatedThe red thread1490 CE to nowThe serpent3000 BCE to nowThe spiral4400 BCE to nowThe square hole206 BCE to nowThe swastika10000 BCE to nowThe tooth and the claw23 CE to nowThe tree1550 BCE to nowThe word that reads both ways50 CE to now

Every sign →

How long each one has been carried

11001 BCE3001 BCE1001 BCE1 BCE500 CE1000 CE1500 CE1800 CE1900 CE2026 CEthe era boundaryThe swastika — from at least 10,000 BCE; a living religious sign nowThe swastikaJet — c. 10,000 BCE to nowJetJade — c. 6000 BCE to nowJadeGold — 5th millennium BCE to nowGoldCarnelian — c. 4500 BCE to nowCarnelianThe spiral — c. 4400 BCE to nowThe spiralBone and ivory — c. 4400 BCE to nowBone and ivoryCowrie — c. 4000 BCE to nowCowrieFaience — c. 4000 BCE onwardFaienceIron — c. 3500 BCE to nowIronSkin — c. 3351 BCE to nowSkinThe knot — c. 3100 BCE to nowThe knotCowrie strand — from predynastic Egypt to nowCowrie strandTaweret amulet — c. 3000 BCE – c. 390 CETaweret amuletEgyptian amulet craft — c. 3000 BCE – 641 CEEgyptian amulet craftThe eye — c. 3000 BCE to nowThe eyeThe key — the ankh from c. 3000 BCE; the key proper documented from the colonial Caribbean to nowThe keyThe serpent — before 3000 BCE to nowThe serpentFoundation deposit — c. 3000 BCE – 1964 CEFoundation depositThe eye everywhere — c. 3000 BCE to nowThe eye everywhereAnkh amulet — c. 2700 BCE to the late first millennium BCEAnkh amuletWedjat eye — c. 2686 BCE – 641 CEWedjat eyeGrave deposit — c. 2686 BCE to nowGrave depositTattooing — c. 2500 BCE to now; sak yant from c. 800 CETattooingThe crescent — c. 2300 BCE to nowThe crescentThe charm in the wall — c. 2130 BCE, the Girsu foundation pegs, to 1991The charm in the wall11001 BCE3001 BCE1001 BCE1 BCE500 CE1000 CE1500 CE1800 CE1900 CE2026 CE

The oldest twenty-six. The axis is not linear and the ticks say so. All 241 →

What people are actually worried about

Bad luck, unspecified90 claimsIllness83 claimsThe evil eye67 claimsGhosts and hungry spirits50 claimsDemons and night-hags43 claimsHarm to a house or a field40 claimsAnother person's sorcery39 claimsHarm to a child39 claims

One row per claim, not per charm. The whole table →

Everything, by kind

Amulets (109)

The things themselves: worn, buried, nailed above a door, folded into a pocket.

Traditions (19)

The whole practice a charm belongs to, and who is entitled to make one.

Signs (26)

An eye, a hand, a horn, a knot, a serpent — the marks that travel between traditions.

Materials (29)

Carnelian, iron, amber, coral, paper, hair, salt. What a charm is cut from is half of what it claims.

Practices (19)

Making, charging, wearing, feeding, retiring. A charm is a verb before it is a noun.

Places (22)

Markets, workshops, shrines, dig sites and the museum rooms where the rest of it ended up.

People (12)

Makers, monks, excavators, collectors, the scholars who wrote the catalogues.

Museums and projects (10)

Who holds the objects, who publishes the images, who is asking for them back.

Words (21)

Amulet, talisman, charm, ta'wiz, omamori, nazar — and what each one actually says.

Pictures (8)

Catalogue plates, shop signs, votive walls, the drawn sign itself.

Long reads (11)

The eye across four continents, the fake market, and who a charm in a case belongs to.

Records are hand-written JSON, one per node, each field carrying a provenance tier. What this atlas does not cover · every source · the data.

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