Birth tusks (also called magical wands or apotropaic wands) are wands for apotropaic magic (to ward off evil), mainly from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. They are most often made of hippopotamus ivory (Taweret, represented as a bipedal hippopotamus is the goddess of childbirth and fertility), are inscribed and decorated with a series of figures. Most of these tusks were found in burials at Thebes, Lisht, Abydos and at other places, but a few examples were also found at settlements, such as Wah-SutStephen Quirke: Birth Tusks: the Armoury of Health in Context - Egypt - 1800 BC, Middle Kingdom Studies 3. London 2016, , pp. 119-120 or Avaris,Quirke: Birth Tusks, pp. 179-180 but also in Ugarit and Megiddo.Quirke: Birth Tusks, pp. 183-184
