Giant sculpture of a scarab beetle
From Istanbul, modern Turkey
Egyptian, perhaps Ptolemaic period, 332-30 BC
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The scarab beetle (Scarabeus sacer) is one of the
enduring symbols of ancient Egypt, representing rebirth and
associated with the rising sun. This diorite sculpture, at around
one and a half metres long, is one of the largest representations
known. It would presumably have originally stood in a temple. It is
said to be Ptolemaic (305-30 BC), and may have been taken to
Constantinople (modern Istanbul), when Constantinople was the
capital of the later Roman Empire (from AD 330).
There is another large scarab near the Sacred Lake in the Temple
of Karnak; it originally came from the mortuary temple of Amenhotep
III (1390-1352 BC).
T.G.H. James and W.V. Davies, Egyptian sculpture (London, The British Museum Press, 1983)
I. Shaw and P. Nicholson (eds.), British Museum dictionary of A (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)