Scarab with Sobek and Wadjet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The base of this scarab shows the head of a crocodile crowned with a headdress consisting of two long and narrow plumes, a pair of horns and uraei on the extremities. In front of the animal are a small papyrus stem and a large cobra. A sun disk is placed at the top and the heb-basin is engraved at the bottom. The crowned crocodile can be identified as the god Sobek, who was associated with water, fertility and – as indicated by the sun disk above – is also connected to the sun god as Sobek-Re. The raised cobra is also placed underneath the sun disk, suggesting that it may represent the goddess Wadjet, the serpent deity associated with the pharaoh and with royal authority. The papyrus stem (wadj in ancient Egyptian) confirms the interpretation of the cobra as Wadjet.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art