Scarab Inscribed with Hieroglyphs in Rope Border

Scarab Inscribed with Hieroglyphs in Rope Border

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A decorative rope border surrounds an oval (a debased version of the royal cartouche) containing hieroglyphs. The signs do not form words or a royal name, but are chosen for their protective value. The finely incised branches that decorate the back of the scarab are characteristic for Canaanite scarabs of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1700-1500 B.C.). Such scarabs often imitate Egyptian Middle Kingdom models, but do not always correctly render the hieroglyphs or symbols.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scarab Inscribed with Hieroglyphs in Rope BorderScarab Inscribed with Hieroglyphs in Rope BorderScarab Inscribed with Hieroglyphs in Rope BorderScarab Inscribed with Hieroglyphs in Rope BorderScarab Inscribed with Hieroglyphs in Rope Border

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.