Keywords: Egyptian - Scarab - Walters 42376 - Impression.jpg 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 This scarab has a bottom design that displays King Amenhotep seated on his throne He is dressed in a long pleated shendyt wears the so-called Blue crown with Uraeus-serpent and crown sash The king holds with his left hand the crook in front of his chest and with his right an ankh-sign meaning life The block throne has a small back In front of him is a column with a left reading inscription containing his throne name and title and behind him the hieroglyphs for protection and life The layout is well organized but it is notable that the royal figure does not fill the whole space and that the Uraeus on the forehead of the king is unusually large The highest point of the scarab's back is the pronotum dorsal plate of the prothorax Pronotum and elytron wing cases have deeply incised fine borderlines single separation lines V-shaped marks for the humeral callosities shoulder thickenings and small side-depressions The partition lines between pronotum and elytron meet V-shaped The rectangular head is flanked by triangular eyes The trapezoidal side plates have curved outer edges and borderlines and the clypeus front plate has four frontal serrations and two central base notches The raised slender extremities have natural form; the background between the legs is deeply hollowed out The low oval base is symmetrical The scarab is longitudinally pierced was originally mounted or threaded and functioned as an amulet It secures the existence life protection divinity title Perfect god and royal authority cartouche seated king with scepter for the king and provides a private owner with his patronage and protection between 1388 1351 BC New Kingdom steatite with green glaze and residue of white underglaze cm 1 9 3 3 4 7 accession number 42 376 3211 Henry Walters Baltimore 1930 mode of acquisition unknown Walters Art Museum Henry Walters Acquired by Henry Walters 1930 Translation Throne name of King Amenhotep III with cartouche and combined with divinity title The Perfect God Neb-Maat-Re / Protection and life place of origin Egypt Walters Art Museum license 2D Ancient Egyptian scarabs in the Walters Art Museum Hieroglyphs on scarabs Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review |