© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Scarab

AAT Object Form/FunctionAmulet

AAT Object Form/FunctionScarabs

AAT Object Form/FunctionDevontional Jewelry

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period - Ptolemaic Period

Date722-30 BCE

MediumGold

Credit LineCollected by William A. Shelton, funded by John A. Manget

Dimensions1 1/8 x 11/16 in. (2.9 x 1.7 cm)

Object number1921.192

Label TextThe scarab beetle was a symbol of resurrection and rebirth, and amulets in its image were frequently placed on the mummy near the heart. The beetle hieroglyph represents the word meaning "to come into being," indicating its potency. Amulets were often mass-produced in the Late Period by hammering sheet gold into stone molds, which is how this piece was manufactured.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - March 30, 2015
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum 2001), 60.
Rune Nyord, Seeing Perfection: Ancient Egyptian Images beyond Representation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 52, Figure 14.

ProvenanceAcquired for Emory University Museum by William Shelton (1875-1959) from E.A.. Abemayor, Cairo, Egypt, ca. 1921.

Status

Not on view

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