Ram-headed Scaraboid Inscribed with a Blessing Related to Amun (Amun-Re)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This scaraboid calls for protection by the sun god Amun or Amun-Re, referred to by an image of the solar barque. The hieroglyphic inscription reassures the owner that there is no fear when the sun god offers protection. Scarabs bearing wishes and blessings related to divinities whose protection individuals wished to summon were particular popular during the late New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1295–664 B.C.). One side of the back is decorated with a finely carved head of a ram – the animal of the sun god Amun – with a sun disk between its horns and a uraeus (rearing cobra) on its forehead. On either side are wedjat-eyes, symbolizing well-being and health. The face of the cow goddess Hathor, wearing an elaborate wig, is placed on the opposite end between a pair of uraei. She emerges from a lotus flower. This type of ram-headed amulet is particularly popular during Dynasty 25. Both the inscription and the ram invoke solar symbolism, also suggesting that the Hathor image is to be understood in this context and thus perhaps refers to Hathor as the Eye of Re.

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