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Source Description
The ancient Egyptians believed that the dung beetle, the Scarabaeus sacer, was one of the manifestations of the sun god. Representations of these beetles were used as amulets, and for ritual or administrative purposes.Naturalistic scarabs, such as this, were used as part of the amulet set of the mummy. They have a naturalistically formed belly and no additional inscriptions or motifs. The back of this example is very high and the highest point is the pronotum (dorsal plate of the prothorax). Pronotum and elytron (wing cases) are separated by a curved, incised partition line, and the wing cases by a vertical hatch line pattern. The quarter-spherical head is flanked by quarter-spherical eyes that protrude from the head; the trapezoidal side plates are decorated with hatch lines, and clypeus has four frontal serrations. The proportions of the top are slightly unbalanced, the head is small in comparison to plates and clypeus, and the pronotum is large in comparison to the elytron. The modeled extremities have natural form and hatch notches on the frontlegs for the tibial teeth. Two notches are at both side edges, and one at the front and rear edge. The bottom is naturally formed, and an eye protrudes from the center of the belly. The bottom structure is standardized and the extremities visible; the round eye with horizontal drill-hole is big and protrudes completely from the body of the beetle. The basic form of the scarab is round-oval.The scarab is funerary amulet with regenerative function, which was attached to mummy bandages.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
17658
label
Naturalistic Scarab
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
3
Source metadata
id
17658
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Naturalistic Scarab
description
The ancient Egyptians believed that the dung beetle, the Scarabaeus sacer, was one of the manifestations of the sun god. Representations of these beetles were used as amulets, and for ritual or administrative purposes.Naturalistic scarabs, such as this, were used as part of the amulet set of the mummy. They have a naturalistically formed belly and no additional inscriptions or motifs. The back of this example is very high and the highest point is the pronotum (dorsal plate of the prothorax). Pronotum and elytron (wing cases) are separated by a curved, incised partition line, and the wing cases by a vertical hatch line pattern. The quarter-spherical head is flanked by quarter-spherical eyes that protrude from the head; the trapezoidal side plates are decorated with hatch lines, and clypeus has four frontal serrations. The proportions of the top are slightly unbalanced, the head is small in comparison to plates and clypeus, and the pronotum is large in comparison to the elytron. The modeled extremities have natural form and hatch notches on the frontlegs for the tibial teeth. Two notches are at both side edges, and one at the front and rear edge. The bottom is naturally formed, and an eye protrudes from the center of the belly. The bottom structure is standardized and the extremities visible; the round eye with horizontal drill-hole is big and protrudes completely from the body of the beetle. The basic form of the scarab is round-oval.The scarab is funerary amulet with regenerative function, which was attached to mummy bandages.
provenance
Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
664-525 BCE (Late Period)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Precious Stones & Gems
scarabs
amulets
imageCount
3
pageCount
3
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
1.2
height
1.7
depth
2.2
dimensionsRaw
H: 1/2 x W: 11/16 x L: 7/8 in. (1.2 x 1.7 x 2.2 cm)
Source extras
cul
Egyptian
dynasty
26th Dynasty
med
light beige faience with blue glaze
creator_ids
6182
collection_ids
EGY
exhibition_ids
10
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
73833448ace239c2
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
6900eb8d22603d6e
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
90d48412b525bb08
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no