LOT 0480

Egyptian Steatite Scarab Collection

HYKSOS PERIOD AND NEW KINGDOM, 18TH-13TH CENTURY B.C.

3/4 - 1 in. (15 grams total, 18-24 mm).

Each with a domed carapace, two with a figure on the underside surrounded by hieroglyphs, two inscribed with hieroglyphic signs.

Acquired in Europe before 1992.
Ex private collection, UK.

Cf. Ben-Tor, D., Scarabs, Chronology, and Interconnections: Egypt and Palestine in the Second Intermediate Period, Fribourg/Göttingen, 2007, pl. 102, Design Class 10A, 13, for a close parallel to the top left scarab; Bietak, M., Czerny, E. (eds.), Scarabs of the Second Millennium BC from Egypt, Nubia, Crete and the Levant: Chronological and Historical Implications, Vienna, 2004, p. 97, fig. 91, for a Palestinian scarab with a design similar to that of the bottom-left scarab; Newberry, P.E., Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire N° 36001-37521, Scarab-shaped Seals, Cairo, 1907, p. 358 (CG37430), pl. XVIII, for a New Kingdom finger ring with a scarab decorated with a near-identical design to the top right scarab; Ben-Tor, D., Scarabs, Chronology, and Interconnections: Egypt and Palestine in the Second Intermediate Period, Fribourg/Göttingen, 2007, pl. 52, Design Class 3A4, for variants of the bottom right scarab motif of a Horus hawk with symbols.

The term ‘Hyksos’ comes from the Egyptian phrase ‘heka khasuwt’, which means ‘rulers of foreign (hill) lands’. The 15th Dynasty was governed by these Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. They were not of Egyptian origin but were believed to be Canaanites, and their names were carved on their scarabs.