Scarab inscribed with the name Menkheperre

Scarab inscribed with the name Menkheperre

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The underside of the scarab shows a pair of stylized ostrich feathers on either side of an oval. The oval is a corrupt version of the royal cartouche and contains hieroglyphs forming the throne name of Thutmose III, Menkheperre. A winged sun disk is placed above. The typological features of the scarab’s back are characteristic for late New Kingdom-early Third Intermediate Period scarabs. This date is also indicated by the irregular manner in which the sun, the plumes, and the oval are incised. The composition is inspired by Menkheperre scarabs of the Ramesside period. Given the absence of titles or epithets, it is more likely that scarabs of Dynasty 20-21 inscribed with the name Menkheperre (or variants thereof) are a testimony of the posthumous cult of this pharaoh rather than that the name refers to the high priest of Amun Menkheperre.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scarab inscribed with the name MenkheperreScarab inscribed with the name MenkheperreScarab inscribed with the name MenkheperreScarab inscribed with the name MenkheperreScarab inscribed with the name Menkheperre

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.