Part 6

Hunting scenes on scarab-seals appear for the first time during the Hyksos period, and a beautifully cut specimen of this date is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford (Pl. XXV, 26). It represents a king clad in a striped loin-cloth with fringed edge, and wearing a curiously-shaped head-dress. Armed with a bow and arrows, he hunts three ibex-gazelles and a lion among bushes of a desert wady. To a later period, probably not earlier than the Nineteenth Dynasty, belong the common hunt scarabs of the types figured in Pl. XLII, 33-39. The first and rarest type (Pl. XLII, 33) shows a hunter with lions and cheetahs chasing a gazelle. The second and commonest type represents an archer hunting the lion and other desert animals (Pl. XLII, 35). The third type is more elaborate, and depicts the hunter riding in a chariot drawn by one or more horses (Pl. XLII, 37-39), while on other scarabs we sometimes see the huntsman overtaken by a lion, and lying flat on the ground, apparently slain (Pl. XLII, 34). The cutting of these Nineteenth Dynasty hunt scarabs is generally deep, and the subject is always more or less coarsely rendered: few specimens bear any trace of glazing, and when found it is always of an inferior kind, which has turned brown.

[Sidenote: Coil and rope patterns.]

Scarabs with ornamental devices, such as coils and twisted rope patterns engraved upon them, appear first about the reign of Usertsen I, and continued in use to the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, after which period they rarely occur. The date of any single specimen may generally be determined by the form of the back, but the glazing and general style of cutting is also important in this connection. Specimens of the late Twelfth and early Thirteenth Dynasties are often fine examples of ornamental art: they are generally designed with much care, and executed with wonderful minuteness and delicacy of touch. Finely worked specimens are also found of the time of Queen Hatshepsut and Thothmes III. A representative series of coil and rope-pattern scarabs is given in Pls. XVIII and XIX. The rope-patterns figured in Pl. XIX, 1-3, are of the Hyksos period, while those on Pl. XVIII, 1-15, 18, range in date from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Dynasties. The coil-patterns given in Pl. XIX, 4, 5, 9, are certainly of the Hyksos period, while the remainder of the coil patterns are mainly of the late Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynasties. Often the continuous loop coil was used to ornament the scarabs of kings and officials. The earliest example, indeed the earliest example of any coil-pattern in Egypt, is found on a scarab of Usertsen I, most exquisitely worked and fully developed (fig. 82).

For a long time past it has been thought that the spiral as a motive in decoration originated in the Nile Valley, and much misconception seems to prevail among archaeologists as to its occurrence in Egypt. Prof. Petrie says[114] that its earliest use in the country was for the decoration of scarabs, and he would trace the spiral motive back as far as the Fifth Dynasty. The single scarab that he instances, it is true, bears the prenomen of Dad-ka-Ra (Assa), but there is not the slightest reason to make one believe that this particular specimen is contemporaneous with the king whose name it bears; the whole style of it, on the contrary, clearly shows that it belongs to no earlier a date than the Eighteenth Dynasty. Prof. Petrie also attributes a number of scarabs bearing coil, hook and link ornamentation to the Sixth and Eighth Dynasties, but these have been conclusively shown by Fraser[115] and Griffith[116] to be in reality _post_ rather than _pre_ Twelfth Dynasty. The fact is that the spiral has not yet been found on Egyptian monuments of an older date than the reign of Usertsen I. It was then used as a motive for decorating a ceiling in the tomb of a chieftain at Assiut.[117] Employed architecturally it is not found again until the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, when it was perhaps the most frequent motive for ceiling decorations in Theban tombs. In these tombs it is generally coloured yellow, to represent gold, and it is highly probable that the ornament itself originated in metal wire-work.[118]

At the same time as we find it occurring at Assiut, we also find the spiral used to decorate a scarab bearing the prenomen of Usertsen I (fig. 82). On this specimen the ornament is cut with very great care and regularity, indicating that the design was “a novelty, which had not yet become stereotyped[119] and reproduced as a matter of course.” The same exquisite workmanship is found on some scarabs bearing private names of the time of Amenemhat III or a little later; and here the continuous coil is combined with the lotus in a most beautiful design—a continuous coil, with flowers and buds in the spaces (Pl. XIV, figs. 21-26). It is difficult to believe that such a design sprang into being fully developed; but nothing has yet been found in Egypt at all like it of a period anterior to the Twelfth Dynasty; we must therefore search for the origin and development of the spiral motive in ornament elsewhere than in the Nile Valley. We do not yet know sufficiently the history of the Delta to say definitely that it did not originate there, but the probabilities are that we should look for its earliest employment and development outside the realm of Egypt.[120] However that may be, the spiral was one of the most important of the motives of the decorative art of the ancient world. From very ancient times it was largely used by the peoples of Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, and in “the wake of early commerce it was spread afield to the Danubian basin, and thence in turn by the valley of the Elbe to the Amber coast of the North Sea; there to supply the Scandinavian Bronze Age population with their leading decorative designs. Adopted by the Celtic tribes in the Central European area, it took at a somewhat later date a westerly turn, reached Britain with the invading Belgae, and finally survived in Irish art.”[121]

[Sidenote: Material. Hard stones, obsidian, etc.]

Scarabs are made of all kinds of material, from the hardest obsidian and amethyst, to soft steatite and even wood. In all ages they were made of hard stones. Obsidian, spotted diorite, beryl, white quartz, hematite, amethyst, serpentine, green and red jasper, as well as red carnelians, lapis lazuli, and turquoise were all in use from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty onwards to the Twenty-sixth. Rarely during the earlier periods were the bases of the hardest stone specimens engraved; they were usually covered with a gold plate, upon which the device or inscription was incised.

[Sidenote: Gold, silver, etc.]

Metal scarabs are very rare: a few of gold, and two or three of silver are known of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, while about a dozen examples of bronze, of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, are preserved in our museums.

[Sidenote: Glass and cyanus.]

At the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty glass first appears, and of the reigns of the Amenheteps III and IV a number of seals have been found of a beautiful semitransparent deep blue glass. Of the late Eighteenth Dynasty a few specimens are known of cyanus, an alkaline silicate coloured a deep blue with carbonate of copper, and this material was used in increasing quantity till the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.

[Sidenote: Schist and steatite.]

Besides the hard stones enumerated above, shelly-limestone, schist, and steatite were also employed, and a few scarabs are known that were made of ivory. Steatite (or soapstone) was used in the manufacture of scarabs from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Dynasties, and by far the greater number of specimens are made of this material. It is a silicate of magnesium, soft, easily cut, and at the same time its superior compactness secures it from being readily broken or injured, and it is also capable of receiving a higher finish and much sharper impression of the subject than porcelain.

[Sidenote: The Glazes.]

The steatite scarabs were nearly always glazed, and the glazing often helps to indicate the date of a specimen. Only by a careful study of a large number of specimens can the eye be accustomed to differentiate between the varieties of glazing used at different periods. A very fine blue glaze of excellent quality is characteristic of the Twelfth Dynasty, and green glaze was also often used at this period. Many shades of blue and green glaze of very hard quality are found on the specimens of the Thirteenth Dynasty, and the few Hyksos scarabs that yet retain their colour show that a green glaze of a poorer quality was used at that period. The characteristic glazes of the early Eighteenth Dynasty are green, of a slightly greyish tint, generally of a fine surface, while those of the latter half of the dynasty, though coarser in quality, are often very brilliant in colour, and show a variety of tints ranging through all the shades of blue and green. Violet glaze was also employed at this period. The glazes of the Nineteenth Dynasty are often poor in quality, and generally of a dark yellowish-green colour, though sometimes blue and violet. The colour commonest during the Twentieth and later period are blue of various shades. It should be remarked here that the greatest number of scarabs are brown or white: the brown ones were invariably coloured green, and the white specimens blue.

4. MISCELLANEOUS FORMS OF SEALS.

[Sidenote: Miscellaneous forms.]

Besides scarabaei, other forms of seals are met with in Egypt. Many of them have little models of men or animals on the back, as human-heads, symbolic eyes, hippopotami, lions, hedgehogs, ducks, fish, frogs, flies, crocodiles; while not a few are shaped like cowries.

A large number are also cut in geometrical forms, tablet-shaped, squares, rectangles, ovals, cubes, and cones. Like the scarabs, they are all pierced, through their long axis or diameter, with a narrow cylindrical hole, and were similarly mounted.

[Sidenote: Animals as devices.]

The specimen illustrated in fig. 83, now in the MacGregor Collection, bears a private name upon the base. The material is steatite, beautifully carved. The figure is that of a male, squatting in the familiar attitude, his hands upon his knees, and wearing a full wig. The date is late in the Twelfth Dynasty. Fig. 84 is another illustration of the same motive, dating from the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Animal forms are illustrated in the figs. 85, 86, 87, 88, 89. The first represents a naturalistic group, a cow suckling its calf, exquisitely cut in steatite. It is in the collection of Captain Timmins in Cairo. The design upon the base is analogous in its symmetry and the devices employed to the steatite stamp, fig. 94, in the same collection, which probably dates from about the Eleventh Dynasty. The two stamps, figs. 86 and 87, are very important, one of them being dated by the cartouche of Mentuhetep of the Eleventh Dynasty, the other by its analogy, and by the device of a running figure in line frequently employed upon the button-seals (fig. 42, and _cf._ fig. 28). Hornets are employed upon the Karnak three-sided seal, fig. 86, which is probably of earlier date, about the close of the Sixth Dynasty. A further example of this [Sidenote: Miscellaneous devices.] character, being a ram with horns, is in the MacGregor Collection: upon the base is an interesting pattern in coils, dating probably from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty. A great number of seals with cats (fig. 88), hedgehogs, hippopotami (fig. 89), and fish (fig. 90), date from the time of Thothmes III in the Eighteenth Dynasty, while those with ducks (figs. 91, 92), frogs, and flies, seem to be slightly later, dating from the reign of Amenhetep III.

A number of large seals are oval in form; one of these, with a device of animals incised upon the back, shown in fig. 93, bears upon the base the blundered cartouche of Amenemhat III. One of rectangular form (fig. 94) is rather of the nature of a stamp, being without decoration upon the back other than the necessary suspension hole in the attachment, while upon the base is the device previously described as belonging to the period which precedes the Middle Kingdom—between the Sixth and Eleventh Dynasties, from its analogy to the button-seals of that time. Other stamps are illustrated in figs. 95 and 96, having oval bases. They date from the Seventeenth Dynasty, bearing the names of Seqen-en-ra and Se-Amen. Another stamp (fig. 97) of larger size, has a simple handle down the middle of the back. The device in this case represents a number of captives or votives below the emblem of Anubis. This class of stamp, used generally for the sealing up of tomb-doors, as in the case of the tomb of Thothmes IV at Thebes, seems to date from the Eighteenth Dynasty. Fig. 98 represents another common form of the same period, itself dating to the reign of the emblem upon it, Thothmes III. A less usual class, dating from the Twelfth Dynasty, is represented in fig. 99. The back in this instance is plain, the form of the stamp resembling a slice from a sphere, with the device upon the plane face. A hole pierces the thickness. Figs. 100 and 101, represent other objects of this class, which from its Aegean analogies is of peculiar importance. The former specimen is dated, from an inscription on its back, to the reign of Usertsen III; the coil device is employed in each case. Two interesting examples are shown in figs. 102 and 103, the one being of the Eighteenth Dynasty, from its cutting and its glaze, the other of the Nineteenth Dynasty, from the cartouche of Rameses II incised upon it. A late example is that shown in fig. 104, and is a common type of the period of the Saïte renaissance in the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The inscription gives the name of Tahuti son of Aahmes, chief of the scribes of the temple. It is of pottery, glazed green, and is in the Collection of Captain Timmins.

Two typical stamps of the Thirtieth Dynasty, one in bronze, the other in pottery, are pictured in figs. 105 and 106. They are both without device upon the plain handle of suspension. The one fig. 105 bears the name of the Royal son Za-hapi-amen; the other bears the name of king Kheper-ka-Ra, otherwise Nekht-neb-ef, with whom the list of Egypt’s kings comes to a close.

5. SIGNET-RINGS.

[Sidenote: Signet-rings.]

The signet-ring was called in Egyptian [Egyptian **] _zebat_ (var. [Egyptian **], pl. [Egyptian **] Coptic [Coptic **] it consisted of (_a_) a perforated bezel, the part that bears the inscription or device, and (_b_) a hoop or wire which runs through the bezel and round the inside of the finger. The bezel was generally a separate piece of stone or metal, and when that was the case, it was generally encircled by a metal band (_funda_) and pierced so that it formed a swivel ring.

[Sidenote: Their history.]

The earliest examples that we know of are not older than the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty, but from that period onwards they are fairly common in Egypt. A number were found by M. de Morgan, at Dahshûr, of the date of Usertsen III to Amenemhat III, and these are all of one type: a scarab threaded on a piece of gold wire, the ends of which are twisted round several times on the back of the hoop (fig. 107). At a somewhat later period we find the gold wire thickened in the middle to lend additional strength, and the two ends thrust into the perforation of the scarab. The specimen illustrated (fig. 108) dates from the Thirteenth Dynasty. A second type of this period is shown in fig. 109. Here the scarab is mounted in a gold _funda_ and the perforation is threaded by a wire, the ends of which are wound tightly round the hoop, which is made of a separate piece of metal. The same form survives during the Hyksos period (_see_ Pl. I, ring of King Apepŷ), and on to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (fig. 110, and the ring of Hor-em-heb, Pl. I). With the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty another form appears, that of a plain metal ring with the outer surface of the bezel flat and the inner curved (fig. 111). This form was rare during the earlier reigns of the dynasty, but common under Amenhetep III and Akhenaten (_see_ ring of Akhenaten, Pl. I), and it survives to the present day. At the time of Thothmes III, a ring consisting of a plain hoop beaten out into a lozenge shaped plate occurs (Pl. XXIX, 31), but it is a very rare form until after the Twentieth Dynasty. With the reign of Amenhetep III, pottery rings of all forms are found, and these are very common till the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty.

Pottery rings, with long bezels, as shown in figs. 112 and 113, appear first at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, and continue on till the end of the Twenty-third. The examples of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty are of several forms, the commonest being the plain hoop beaten out into a rectangular or lozenge-shaped plate which bears the inscription. Other forms give the outer surface of the bezel flat and the inner curved, as in figs. 114 and 115: the one being a ring of a priest of Khufu, named Nefer-ab-ra; the other that of a priest of Tahuti, named Hor-se-ast. A rarer form is that illustrated in fig. 116, where the flat engraved plate is welded on to a plain hoop.

DESCRIPTIONS

OF THE

SPECIMENS FIGURED IN THE PLATES.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

The following abbreviations are used to denote the collections and works most frequently quoted in the descriptions of the Plates:—

Alnw. The Duke of Northumberland’s Collection at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.

Amh. Lord Amherst of Hackney’s Collection at Didlington Hall, Norfolk.

Ashm. The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

Ath. The Athens Museum.

_A.Z._ _Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache_, Berlin.

Benson Mr. E. F. Benson’s Collection, London.

Berl. The Egyptian Museum, Berlin.

B.M. The British Museum.

Bol. The Museo Civico, Bologna.

B.P. (Delhaes Coll.) Buda Pesth.

C.d.M. The Cabinet des Medailles, Paris.

C.M. The Cairo Museum.

Dat. G. Dattari’s Collection, Cairo.

Davis Mr. Theodore M. Davis’ Collection, Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A.

de M. _D._ M. de Morgan’s _Fouilles à Dahchour_.

Dres. The Dresden Museum.

Edw. The Edwards’ Collection, University College, London.

Evans Col. John Evans’ Collection, London.

Fitzw. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

F._Sc._ Mr. G. W. Fraser’s book “_Scarabs_.”

Gibs. Mr. Gibson’s Collection, Liverpool.

Gdn. Mrs. Goodison’s Collection, Waterloo, near Liverpool.

Gr. The late Dr. Grant’s Collection, Liverpool.

Green Mr. F. W. Green’s Collection, Tunbridge Wells.

Har. The Harrow School Museum, Harrow.

Herm. The Museum of the Ermitage, St. Petersburg.

Hood Mrs. Hood’s Collection, Nettleham Hall, Lincoln.

H-P. Mr. Hilton Price’s Collection, London.

L. The Egyptian Museum of the Louvre, Paris.

Leyd. The Leyden Museum.

Liv. The Liverpool Museum.

Luxor Specimens seen in Dealers’ shops at Luxor.

Mars. The Château Borelly Museum, Marseilles.

M. _B._ M. Maspero’s _Guide du visiteur au Musée de Boulaq_.

M. _Cat. Ab._ Mariette’s _Catalogue général des Monuments d’Abydos_.

_M.D._ Mariette’s _Monuments Divers_.

M-G. Mr. W. MacGregor’s Collection, Tamworth.

M. _Mast._ Mariette’s _Les Mastabas de l’Ancien Empire_.

Murch Mr. Chauncey Murch’s Collection, Luxor.

Myers The late Major Myers’ Collection, now in the Eton College Museum, Eton.

Nash Mr. W. Nash’s Collection.

Newb. Scarabs in the possession of the writer.

N.Y. The Abbott Collection at New York.

Piers’ Coll. Mr. Piers’ Collection, New York.

P. Prof. Petrie’s Collection at University College, London.

P. _I._ Prof. Petrie’s _Illahûn, Kahun and Gurob_.

P. _K._vProf. Petrie’s _Kahun, Gurob and Hawara_. P. R. T. Prof. Petrie’s volumes on the Royal Tombs of Abydos.

P. _Sc._ Prof. Petrie’s _Historical Scarabs_.

_P.S.B.A._ _Proceedings_ of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.

S.K. The South Kensington Museum.

Thomp. Sir Herbert Thompson’s Collection, London.

Timmins’ Coll. Capt. C. Timmins’ Collection, Cairo.

T. The Turin Museum.

Vat. The Egyptian Museum of the Vatican, Rome.

Vien. The Vienna Museum.

v-B. Baron von Bissing’s Collection, Munich.

W. Mr. John Ward’s Collection, Belfast.

W. _S.B._ Mr. John Ward’s volume on _The Sacred Beetle_.

PLATE I.

SOME ROYAL SIGNET-RINGS.

I. Signet-ring of Apepŷ I. In the possession of Mr. Theodore M. Davis. The bezel is of green-glazed steatite, carved in the shape of a scarabaeus-beetle with a human head, and mounted in a thin gold funda. On the base of the bezel is engraved in intaglio, and within a cartouche, the name of the “Good King Aauser-ra (Apepŷ I), giving life.” The cartouche is surrounded by a continuous rope-pattern. The hoop of the ring is of gold, and the bezel is secured to it by means of a gold wire running longitudinally through the funda and scarab, and coiled tightly round its two ends.

II. Signet-ring of Amenhetep II. In the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre. The bezel is of solid gold, in the form of a rectangular plaque. On one face are engraved, in intaglio, the titles and prenomen of Amenhetep II: “The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Lord of the Two Lands, Aa-kheperu-ra,” the cartouche being surmounted by two cobras, and resting on the _nub_-sign. On the other face are the titles: _Heru_, _ka nekht_, _user pehtet_, “the Horus and Mighty Bull, strong in power.” The bezel is pierced longitudinally by a narrow hole, and it is fixed to the hoop of the ring by means of a rod running through it, and rivetted to the shoulders.

III. Signet-ring of Nefer-ka-ra (Psamtek II). In the possession of Mr. Walter Nash. A plain hoop of gold, beaten out into a lozenge-shaped plate, upon which is cut, in intaglio, the prenomen of Psamtek II.

IV. Signet-ring of Neferu-kheperu-ra Setep-en-ra (Akh-en-aten). In the possession of Mr. Walter Nash. A hoop of silver, with massive bezel, the inner surface of which is curved, and the outer flat, with the prenomen of Akh-en-aten engraved upon it.