File:Egyptian - Scarab Amulet - Walters 422 - Impression.jpg
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Captions
Summary edit
Scarab Amulet ( ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Artist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Title |
Scarab Amulet |
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Description |
English: 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 particular seal represents the Nine Bows, (the many enemies of Ancient Egypt, 9 being the plural of the plural 3 prisioners-3 X 3, but referring to any number; some lists of enemies, listed in cartouches-(city-tribe cartouches), were in the 20's). This seal impression, (Nine Bows, overseen by Anubis), is equivalent to the seal impressed in the clay ball, sealing the rope, on the door of King Tutankhamun's tomb. The bottom of this scarab displays a motif that combines the figure of a jackal with nine captives. The reclining jackal's head is raised, and his tail hanging down. Below his body are nine prisoners in three rows depicted; they are kneeling on the ground with their arms fettered behind their backs. The jackal is the dominant icon in the composition according to his size and superior position. The slim figures of the prisoners are not intended to represent individual persons, but a group; all have the same posture and are placed in a symmetrical order; only the position of the fettered arms shows minor variations. An oval line frames the motif. The highest point of the back is the pronotum (dorsal plate of the prothorax). Pronotum and elytron (wing cases) have incised borderlines, a double, curved partition line, and one division line between the wing cases with a scutellum (small central triangle) at the upper end. The semicircular head is flanked by quarter-ovoid eyes; the side plates are quarter-circular, and the clypeus (front plate) has two central base notches. The raised extremities have natural form, as well as diagonal (hindlegs) and vertical (frontlegs) hatch notches on the upper sides for tibial teeth and pilosity (hair). The proportions of the top are slightly unbalanced, the elytron short, and the clypeus and plates very large in comparison to the small head. The base has a symmetrical long-oval shape. The scarab is longitudinally pierced, was originally mounted or threaded, and used as an institutional, funerary amulet. The motif on the bottom represents the administrative seal of the Thebes' necropolis, but was also used in other cemeteries. Nevertheless, the faience material makes it doubtful that the scarab was really used as an official seal. It seems more likely that the scarab was used as a protective funerary amulet that should guarantee the security of the tomb in this world, and be effective against dangers in the afterlife. This seal was used since the late 18th Dynasty; comparable seal impressions were found e.g. in the tomb of king Tutankhamen, and a seal matrix made of faience is today in the Myers Museum at the Eton College. |
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Date |
between 1330 and 1213 BC date QS:P571,-1500-00-00T00:00:00Z/6,P1319,-1330-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,-1213-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 (New Kingdom of Egyptera QS:P2348,Q180568 ) |
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Medium | faience with green-blue glaze | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Dimensions |
height: 4.8 cm (1.8 in); width: 2.9 cm (1.1 in); depth: 1.7 cm (0.6 in) dimensions QS:P2048,4.8U174728 dimensions QS:P2049,2.9U174728 dimensions QS:P5524,1.7U174728 |
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Collection |
institution QS:P195,Q210081 |
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Accession number |
42.2 |
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Place of creation | Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Object history |
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Credit line | Acquired by Henry Walters, 1924 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Source | Walters Art Museum: Home page Info about artwork | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Permission (Reusing this file) |
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Licensing edit
This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Walters Art Museum as part of a cooperation project. All artworks in the photographs are in public domain due to age. The photographs of two-dimensional objects are also in the public domain. Photographs of three-dimensional objects and all descriptions have been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License.
In the case of the text descriptions, copyright restrictions only apply to longer descriptions which cross the threshold of originality.
العربيَّة | English | français | italiano | македонски | русский | sicilianu | +/− |
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
This digital reproduction has been released under the following licenses:
In many jurisdictions, faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are not copyrightable. The Wikimedia Foundation's position is that these works are not copyrightable in the United States (see Commons:Reuse of PD-Art photographs). In these jurisdictions, this work is actually in the public domain and the requirements of the digital reproduction's license are not compulsory. |
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current | 02:52, 25 March 2012 | 557 × 900 (159 KB) | File Upload Bot (Kaldari) (talk | contribs) | == {{int:filedesc}} == {{Walters Art Museum artwork |artist = Egyptian |title = ''Scarab Amulet'' |description = {{en|The ancient Egyptians believed that the dung beetle, the Scarabaeus sacer, was one of the manifestations of... |
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