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Chronological arrangement of

names

possible.

Scarabs

and Tharros.

were first buried in them. When a scarab is found bound up in a mummy, the date of which can be ascertained from the inscriptions upon it, that scarab can be used with advantage as an authority by which to compare other scarabs;1 when, however, a scarab is dug up with a lot of miscellaneous stuff it is of little value for the purpose of comparison. From the lowest depths of the VIth and XIIth dynasty tombs at Aswân, scarabs have been dug up which could not have been a day older than the XXVIth dynasty, if as old. In some of these tombs, carefully closed with beautifully fitting blocks of stone, were found also red terra-cotta jars inscribed in hieratic which could not have been a day older than the XIXth dynasty, yet the inscriptions on the walls proved beyond a doubt that the tombs were made for officials who lived during the XIIth dynasty. It must then be clearly understood that the objects found in a tomb do not, necessarily, belong to the period of the tomb itself, and all the evidence known points to the fact that it is nearly impossible to arrange a collection of scarabs chronologically, except so far as the order of the names is concerned. Comparatively little is known about the various local manufactures of scarabs, or of their characteristics, and hundreds of examples of them exist which can neither be read nor explained nor understood.

What has been said of the scarabs of Naucratis applies of Ialysos, Kamiros, equally to those found at Ialysos and Kamiros in Rhodes, and at Tharros in Sardinia, places associated with the Phoenicians or Carthaginians. At Ialysos, faïence and steatite scarabs are rare. Of the three found there preserved in the British Museum, two are steatite and one is of faïence. One of the examples in steatite is fractured, whereby the design or inscription is rendered illegible, and the other is inscribed with tet, emblem of stability, on each side of which is an uræus The example in faïence measures is inscribed with the prenomen of Scarabs are rare in Kamiros

1 inch in length, and
Amen-ḥetep III.,

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1 Such a scarab, however, may quite well be older than the mummy upon which it is found.

2 Brit. Mus. Reg. Nos. 72-3-15, 110; 70-10-3, 130 and 131.

also, so far as concerns the tombs, and in those in which black and red vases were obtained no scarabs were found; many specimens were, however, found in a well on the Acropolis, and among them were some inscribed with the prenomen of Thothmes III., having all the characteristics of those of the XXVIth dynasty found at Naucratis. The scarabs found at Tharros do not go farther back than the period of Carthaginian supremacy, that is, not farther than the middle of the VIth century B.C. A steatite scarab, found at anch "life," and a winged

Thebes in Bœotia, inscribed with

gryphon wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt , belongs to the same period.♦

sion of

found at

Nineveh.

At Kouyunjik there were found two pieces of clay, of Impresthe same colour and substance as that employed by Assur- scarabs banipal for the tablets of his library, bearing impressions of an Egyptian king slaughtering his enemies, and hieroglyphic inscriptions, probably from a scarab. The king holds a club or weapon in his raised left hand, and his right holds some instrument which rests on the heads of a number of captives. The inscriptions read

neter nefer Shabaka neb ȧri xet, "Beautiful god, Shabaka, the lord, maker of things" (the first king of the XXVth dynasty, about B.C. 700). Behind the king are the signs sa “protection," anch "life,” and "increase [of power]." In front of the king is the speech of some god ta-na nek set nebu, "I give to

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thee all foreign lands." The Brit. Mus. Registration Nos. of these interesting objects are 51-9-2, 43, and 81-2-4, 352; as there is on the former also the impression of the seal of an Assyrian king, it has been thought that the impression

1 No. 132 in Table-Case E in the Kouyunjik Gallery.

2 Murray, Catalogue of Gems, p. 13.

3 Brit. Mus. Reg. Nos. 64-10-7, 895, 915, 1998.

4 Murray, op. cit., p. 13, and King, Antique Gems and Rings, Vol. I. p. 124. See Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1867, pp. 173, 174.

Use of scarab by Phoenicians.

Use of

scarab in

Babylonia.

formed the seal of a treaty between the kings of Egypt and Assyria. Shabaka (Sabaco) was a contemporary of Sennacherib, B.C. 705-681.

The Phoenicians borrowed the use of the scarab from Egypt, and as their country was overrun by Shalmaneser II., King of Assyria B.C. 860-825, and by many of his successors, it is only natural that the scarab inscribed with devices to suit the Assyrian market should find its way to Nineveh and Babylon, the Phoenician adopting in return the form of gem commonly used by the Assyrians for seals. A good example of the Phoenicio-Assyrian scarab is No. 1029, exhibited in the table-case in the Phoenician Room of the British Museum. It is made of green jasper, and measures 1 in. in length. On the base is inscribed a man, who stands adoring a seated deity; above is a seven-rayed star, and between them is anch,“life.” Beneath is inscribed in Phœnician characters, For other

1717, "Belonging to Hôdô the Scribe."

As

examples see the specimens exhibited in the same case.
an example of the adoption of the chalcedony cone by the
Phoenicians, see No. 1022, on which is inscribed a man at a
fire altar and the name Palzîr-shemesh in Phoenician
characters. The scarab in relief,' with outstretched wings
inlaid with blue, red and gold carved upon an ivory panel
found at Abu Habbah, about five hours' ride to the south-
west of Bagdad, together with a number of miscellaneous
ivory objects, is a proof of the knowledge of the scarab in
Mesopotamia. That the panel was not carved by an
Egyptian workman is very evident. Scaraboids in agate
and crystal, etc., are a small but very interesting class; at
times the device is purely Egyptian, and the inscriptions in
Phoenician letters are the only additions by the Phoenicians.
Brit. Mus. Nos. 1024 and 1036 are tolerably good examples
of them. The former is inscribed on the base with three
hawks with outspread wings, and two of them have disks on

See Table-Case G in the Nimroud Gallery.

2 The two rectangular weights (?) found at Nimroud by Sir A. H. Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, London, 1867, p. 64) have each, on one face, the figure of a scarab inlaid in gold in outline; the work is excellent, and is a fine example of Phoenician handicraft.

their heads; these, of course, represent the hawk of Horus. The Phoenician inscription gives the name Eliâm. The latter is inscribed with a beetle in a square frame, and on the right and left is an uræus ; each end of the perpendicular sides of the frame terminates in fanch, and above and below it is a figure of Ra, or Horus, hawk-headed, holding a sceptre The name, inscribed in Phoenician characters, is "Mersekem." In 1891, while carrying on excavations at Dêr, a place about three and a half hours to the south-west of Bag

Scarabs in

dad, I obtained a steatite scarab inscribed with an uræus In Babylonia.

änch, and an illegible sign, together with an oval green transparent Gnostic gem inscribed with the lion-headed serpent XNOYBIC. Both objects were probably brought from Lower Egypt, and belong to a period after the birth of Christ.1

found at

Dr. Birch describes in Nineveh and Babylon (London, Scarabs 1853, pp. 281, 282) a series of eleven scarabs which Sir Henry Arbân. Layard dug up at Arbân, a mound situated on the western bank of the Khabûr, about two and a half days' journey north of Dêr on the Euphrates, and about ten miles east of the 'Abd el-'Azîz hills. With one exception they are all made of steatite, glazed yellow or green or blue. Two of them are inscribed with the prenomen of Thothmes III. (Nos. 304, 309); one bears the prenomen of Amenophis III. (No 320), with the titles "beautiful god, lord of two lands, crowned in every land"; one is inscribed “

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men Cheperd at Åmen, "established of Cheperȧ, emanation of Amen"

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and

(No. 322); two are inscribed (No. 303) and
(No. 318), and belong to the same period; one is inscribed
with a hawk-headed lion and a hawk (No. 273); one bears
the legend, "beautiful lord, lord of two lands," ie., the North
and South (No. 321); one is inscribed with a human-headed

1 The numbers are G. 475 and 24,314.

2 These interesting objects are exhibited in the Assyrian and Babylonian Room, in the Northern Gallery of the British Museum.

Scarabs
Arbân.

found at

beetle, with outstretched wings, in the field are uræi and ††

of beautiful workmanship (No. 302); and one is inscribed
with
on its head (No. 307).

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and an uræus having f

The scarab in hæmatite (No. 313) is inscribed with the figure of a king seated on a throne, and a man standing before him in adoration; between them is. With the exception of this last scarab, it is pretty certain that all belong to the period of the XVIIIth dynasty, for they have all the appearance of such antiquity, and they possess all the delicacy of workmanship found upon scarabs of this time. The design on the hæmatite scarab appears to be a copy from an Egyptian scarab executed by a foreign workman, but it may be that the hardness of the material made the task of engraving so difficult, that the character of the design was altered in consequence. The presence of these scarabs at Arbân is not difficult to account for. Thothmes I., one of the early kings of the XVIIIth dynasty, carried his victorious arms into Mesopotamia, and set up a tablet to mark the boundary of the Egyptian territory at a place called Nî, on the Euphrates, and the authority of the Egyptians in that land was so great that when Thothmes III. arrived there several years after, he found the tablet still standing. The kings who immediately succeeded Thothmes I. marched into this land, and that their followers should take up quarters on the fertile banks of the Khabûr, and leave behind them scarabs and other relics, is not to be wondered at. The antiquities found at Arbân are of a very miscellaneous character, and, among other things, include an Assyrian colossus inscribed "Palace of Meshezib-Marduk the king (B.C. 700), and a Chinese glass bottle1 inscribed with a verse of the Chinese poet KEIN-TAU, A.D. 827-831; it is possible that the scarabs described above may have been brought there at a period subsequent to the XVIIIth dynasty, but, in any case, the objects themselves appear to belong to this period. The Gnostics inscribed the scarab on the gems worn by scarab by them, and partly adopted the views concerning it held by the

Use of

the

Gnostics.

1 British Museum, No. N. 1380.

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