Phoenician Green Stone Scarab with Man Fighting Lion

5TH-4TH CENTURY B.C.

3/4 in. (2.63 grams, 18 mm).

Modelled with incised detailing, pierced longitudinally, the underside with a bearded king in Assyrian attire, wearing a long, striated garment and tall headdress, grasping the forelegs of a rearing lion, its head turned back, a star above.

Provenance

Private collection, 1990s-early 2000s.

Literature

Cf. Hölbl, G., Ägyptisches Kulturgut im phönizischen und punischen Sardinien I, Leiden, 1986, p. 302 and pl. 156, for a naturalistically carved green jasper Egyptianising scarab with an Assyrian king grasping an enemy depicted on the underside, discovered in Tharros, Sardinia.

Footnotes

The motif of the Egyptian king overcoming an enemy, whether human or animal, is well attested in the New Kingdom and was later adopted by non-Egyptian artisans for scarabs and seals.

CONDITION

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LOT 0432