scarab
- Description
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Small mould-made scarab in Egyptian blue; well detailed back with some modelling for head and clypeus, and simple incised divisions in single line for prothorax and elytra, and triangular winglets on either side; at side, legs apparently well-modelled; underside with deeply incised walking winged griffin (or lion?) looking forward; pierced lengthwise; surface quite eroded.
- Production date
- 600 BC - 570 BC (mainly)
- Dimensions
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Length: 1.05 centimetres
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Thickness: 0.50 centimetres
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Width: 0.80 centimetres
- Curator's comments
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Object owned and held by Musée du Louvre. This record is included in the British Museum database as part of the Museum’s Naukratis Project, a research collaboration that aims to virtually re-unite finds from the ancient port city of Naukratis, now distributed over 80 museums worldwide.
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Winged griffin or sphinx is characteristic of the Near Eastern iconography (Magnarini 2004, 246, 09.40). This motif is very popular on scarabs and scaraboids produced in the Scarab Factory in Naukratis (on its production see Webb forthcoming). The scarab belongs to a type widely distributed in the Mediterranean area, particularly in Italy and Punic sites, and in Southern Russia (Gorton 1996, 109-111, type XXX A, subtype A1-18, see especially A16 for this specimen).
Gorton, A.F. 1996, Egyptian and Egyptianizing scarabs: a typology of steatite, faience, and paste scarabs from Punic and other Mediterranean sites, Oxford.
Magnarini, F. 2004. Catalogo ragionato di una collezione di Scarabeo-Sigillo Egizi, BAR International Series 1241.
Webb, V. forthcoming, Faience finds from Naukratis and their implications for the chronology of the site, in R. Thomas (ed.), forthcoming. Naukratis in Context I: The Nile Delta as a Landscape of Connectivity. Proceedings of the First Naukratis Project Workshop held at The British Museum 16th – 17th December 2011.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Rather fair
- Acquisition date
- 1888
- Department
- External
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: E8056 bis.4 (Accession Number)