Scarab with Hieroglyphs and Recumbent Donkey

Scarab with Hieroglyphs and Recumbent Donkey

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The underside of this Canaanite Middle Bronze Age scarab is decorated with the representation of recumbent quadruped, which can be identified as a wild ass or donkey based on its long ears and equid-like muzzle. Above and behind the animal are the hieroglyphs for good (nefer) and unification (sema). While the donkey was one of the most important animals of burden in ancient Egypt, in the Levant, the donkey was commonly ridden too.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scarab with Hieroglyphs and Recumbent DonkeyScarab with Hieroglyphs and Recumbent DonkeyScarab with Hieroglyphs and Recumbent DonkeyScarab with Hieroglyphs and Recumbent DonkeyScarab with Hieroglyphs and Recumbent Donkey

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.