Amulets and scarabs: one form, two kinds of record

A scarab is a form, not a place

A scarab is a small beetle-shaped seal-amulet, and the two scarabs on this site are alike in form and different in everything else. The first, of glazed steatite and 2.1 cm long, carries "From Canaan, Levant" in the museum's geography field - no site - and is dated by an Egyptian dynasty: "ca. 1640-1550 B.C., Second Intermediate Period, Dynasty 15". Source 1. The second, of blue-green glazed faience and one centimetre long, was found in the "debris" of a tomb at Lisht South in the museum's excavations of 1932-33 and is dated "ca. 1981-1640 B.C., Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12-13". Source 2. The same form; two places; two kinds of record.

Purchase versus excavation

The scarab "from Canaan" has an ownership history: a collection bought between 1883 and 1907 and purchased by the museum in 1910. "From Canaan" is a field in the record, not an excavation report, so it names a region, not a context. The scarab from Lisht has an exact findspot - a particular tomb, "debris" - and that word matters too: an object from tomb debris was found inside the tomb but not necessarily in its original position. An excavated object allows one to speak of context; a purchased one allows one to speak of form, material and whatever the record attributes to it.

Dating by dynasty: an Egyptian scheme in the Levant

Both scarabs are dated by the names of Egyptian dynasties and periods. On this site an object the museum attributes to Canaan stays in the Levant region and on the Levant timeline; the source's year range is what decides whether the object falls entirely within a period of the regional scheme, and the object page says which kind of placement it is ("by the dating"). A dynasty name does not become the name of a Levantine period, and the guide "How are archaeological finds dated?" explains the difference between the source's dating and the site's placement. The scarab from Lisht is shown within the Egyptian chronology the record names, because Egypt is a region without an approved scheme on this site.

What the records do not say

The record of the scarab "from Canaan" has no descriptive text beyond its title, "Scarab with a Crocodile Headed Figure Holding a Flower"; the explained detail on the photograph points at the figure and does not interpret it. The record of the scarab from Lisht has no public photograph, so the page shows a text frame and says why. The materials, too, are read as worded: "glazed steatite" against "glazed faience" - both glazed, two different bodies - and the difference can be compared on the comparison page without adding a claim about where either was made.

Where to go next

The reading trail "Objects for the afterlife" starts with the culture of ancient Egypt, passes through the scarab from Lisht and ends with the question of what a museum displays and what it does not. The culture page explains why the site does not adopt an Egyptian scheme. The article "Held, displayed, loaned" clarifies what "on view in Gallery 111" means in a record read on a given day.