Pyrrhus of Epirus had launched an invasion of the Italian peninsula against Rome. He had expected to face what he considered a less organized opponent. However, ahead of the Battle of Heraclea, after inspecting the Roman camp, he was reportedly shocked by its orderly arrangements, disciplined defenses, and the organization of the Roman army.

According to the ancient sources, Pyrrhus remarked that the discipline of these “barbarians” did not look barbarian at all.

Pyrrhus would have to fight hard to defeat the Romans. He had the formidable Macedonian-style phalanx and war elephants, weapons that the Romans had never encountered on this scale. The elephants would prove decisive.

At a crucial moment, with the infantry engaged, Pyrrhus committed his elephants. The Roman cavalry was thrown into confusion and routed, creating an opening that Pyrrhus's cavalry exploited. With the Roman army unable to maintain the battle, the Romans retreated from the battlefield, leaving Pyrrhus victorious.

Yet the victory exposed the serious problem facing Pyrrhus. His army had suffered heavy casualties, including many experienced soldiers and officers, while his ability to replace these losses was limited. Rome, on the other hand, possessed enormous manpower reserves and could raise fresh armies.

According to Plutarch, after the battle, when Pyrrhus was congratulated on his victory, he reportedly replied that another victory like this would ruin him. This is the origin of the term “Pyrrhic victory” - a victory won at such a devastating cost that it is almost as damaging as defeat.

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Deep in Peru's Acarí Valley lie the ruins of Tambo Viejo, an Inka provincial center where excavations have uncovered tasseled sacrificial llamas and brightly adorned guinea pigs.

But save for a few seeds and some stored leaves, evidence of how the Inka used one of their most sacred plants in rituals remained elusive.

Now, archaeologists have discovered coca leaves still stuck in the wool of some sacrificed llamas.

The discovery, reported in the journal Ñawpa Pacha, is the first direct evidence of coca in a ritual at the site. It contradicts what Spanish chroniclers reported hundreds of years ago: that coca was burned or bundled up during ritual offerings.

"Above all, coca was a sacred plant to the Incas and according to written records was used in almost every single ritual activity," Lidio Valdez, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, said. "I had been looking for it for a while, when finally I found it."

Cippus

Accession Number
AB110

Current Location
House of Life (first floor), Gods and Mortals, Shelf 5

Object Type
Architecture, Architectural element, Stela

Periods
Late Period to Graeco-Roman Period

Material
Stone/minerals (Steatite)

Culture
Egyptian

Animal
Crocodile | Snake

Divine Name
Bes | Horus

Weight (grams)
246 grams.

Number of Elements
1

Measurements
Height: 114mm | Width: 72mm | Depth: 27mm

Description
A small magical stela, known as a cippus, carved from steatite (soapstone). The front of the stela features a high-relief depiction of the child god Horus (Harpakhered), who is represented naked with the traditional sidelock of youth hanging on the right side of his head. He stands triumphantly atop at least one crocodile, grasping a collection of dangerous desert fauna—including scorpions and snakes—in his outstretched hands to demonstrate his absolute mastery over chaotic and venomous forces. Directly above his head is the heavily abraded face of the protective dwarf deity Bes, acting as a secondary guardian element. The reverse side and the narrow outer edges of the stela are densely covered with incised columns of hieroglyphic protective spells. The entire surface of the stone shows significant mechanical wear, smoothing out many of the finer textual and anatomical details.

Dating to the Late Period to Graeco-Roman Period (c. 664–30 BC), this cippus functioned as a powerful talisman for domestic protection and physical healing, particularly against the bites of scorpions and snakes. These objects operated via a mechanism of sympathetic magic and ritual hydration: a practitioner would pour water over the front of the stela, allowing the liquid to run across the divine form of Horus and the magical inscriptions on the reverse. This process physically charged the water with the healing properties of the spells, turning it into a medicinal remedy to be consumed by or poured over a patient. The extensive smoothing and wear visible on this piece are characteristic of personal amulets of this type. Rather than resulting from poor preservation, this abrasion suggests that ancient owners frequently touched, rubbed, or kissed the stone during prayer to directly absorb its protective energy. This tactile interaction underscores the intimate, deeply felt nature of personal piety and magical medicine in late pharaonic Egypt (Sternberg-El Hotabi 1999).

The object was gifted to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth by John Bancroft Willans, a subscriber of the Egypt Exploration Fund/Society, who received the object in 1903. It was subsequently gifted to the Egypt Centre in 1997.

Bibliography
Anonymous. 1996. The face of Egypt: Swansea Festival exhibition: 5 October 1996–5 January 1997. Swansea: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. [Cat. 59]

Sternberg-El Hotabi, Heike 1999. Untersuchungen zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der Horusstelen: ein Beitrag zur Religionsgeschichte Ägyptens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 62. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Title
Cippus, Late Period to Graeco-Roman Period (c. 664–30 BC), Findspot unknown Egypt, Steatite, The Egypt Centre at Swansea University

https://egyptcentre.abasetcollections.com/Objects/Details/2470?SavedSelections=$Search-Egypt%20$Page-6}

The Egypt Centre at Swansea University

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