scarab
- Description
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Scarab in glazed composition, likely mould-made; underside bearing hieroglyphic inscription, arranged horizontally, giving the name of Amun-Ra with a neb-basket sign to left.
- Production date
- 600 BC-570 BC (mainly)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Object owned and held by Chautauqua Institution, New York. 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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This piece is now lost. Brief description ('scarab') with sketch from Chautauqua distribution list of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
It is possible to identify the scarab with Gardner 1888, pl. XVIII, no. 36. The publication states that it is a paste scarab, not a stone one.
The "Scarab Factory" in Naukratis produced variants of the name of Amun-Ra on scarabs and scaraboids made out of glazed composition (Petrie 1886, pl. XXXVII, 89-93; Gardner 1888, pl. XVIII, no. 25 and 36; on the various productions of the Scarab Factory, see Webb forthcoming).
If the identification is correct, this scarab belongs to a type which was distributed in the Mediterranean area, especially in Greece and Punic sites (Gorton 1996, 129-131, type XXXVI, subtype 16-22, see especially 22 for this piece; a type which is well-related to her larger type XXVIII B).
Gardner, E. A. 1888, Naukratis. Part II (Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund), London.
Gorton, A.F. 1996, Egyptian and Egyptianizing scarabs: a typology of steatite, faience, and paste scarabs from Punic and other Mediterranean sites, Oxford.
Petrie, W.M.F. 1886, Naukratis Part I, 1884–5 (Third Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund), London.
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
- Acquisition date
- 1887
- Department
- External
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: unknown (Accession Number)