The ancient Egyptians maintained that the sun was propelled across the heavens by means of a scarab, or sacred beetle. With the passing of time, the Egyptians created a series of amulets in the form of this beetle in a great variety of materials, and these were routinely provided with inscriptions in hieroglyphs conveniently accommodated to their stylized flat bottoms.
This amulet in the form of a scarab is one of several Egyptian variations on the theme. The body of the beetle is stylized to the extent that the details of the head, plate, and clypeus are confined to a single zone and rely on a few ornamentally incised strokes for their articulation.
The bottom is divided into three distinct zones. The sedge plant and the bee occupy the top, and these two hieroglyphs form the phrase, The King of Upper and of Lower Egypt.” In the center, and very stylized and abstracted in their design, are two wadjet, or sacred eyes, front to front. Below is a beetle flanked on either side by a nefer-sign. The ornamental appearance of the elements in this composition should not obscure the fact that they may have possessed either magical or symbolic value for their original owner.
The dating of our scarab to the Egyptian Middle Kingdom seems assured by the combination of motifs such as the sedge and the bee in association with the wadjet-eyes and beetle with nefer-signs.
References:
W. M. Flinders Petrie, Scarabs and Cylinders with Names (London 1917), pages xii and plate XII, numbers 9-12.
Description and interpretation kindly provided by Prof. Robert S. Bianchi.
