No photographText frame in place of a photograph
Scarab amulet from Lisht
- Material
- Blue-green glazed faience
- Dimensions
- l. 1 cm (3/8 in)
- Date as given by the source
- ca. 1981-1640 BCE
- Record number
- 33.1.50
- Held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The source record has no image
Museum recordDocumented object · Amulets and scarabs · Ancient Egypt
Scarab amulet from Lisht
A one-centimetre amulet of glazed faience found in the debris of a tomb at Lisht South. The record documents an exact findspot and a display in Gallery 109; what it lacks is an open photograph.
Date as given by the sourceca. 1981-1640 BCEAs worded by the source: ca. 1981-1640 B.C.; Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12-13
What you see
What the object is
A very small scarab, one centimetre long, of blue-green glazed faience. The record does not describe the beetle's back or its base. The page has no photograph: the record page shows "No image available" and carries no public-domain statement, so a text frame is shown. Source 1.
What the record says
The record dates the amulet "ca. 1981-1640 B.C.", to the Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12-13, and gives a detailed findspot: Egypt, Memphite Region, Lisht South, tomb of Senwosretankh, debris, MMA excavations 1932-33. The amulet was acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1933 and is on view in Gallery 109.
A documented findspot
Unlike the scarab "from Canaan" on this site, whose record gives only a region, here the source is the museum's own excavation, with a tomb and a context ("debris"). That is the difference between an object bought on the market and an object excavated: the first comes with a classification, the second with a context. Even "debris" is information: the object was found in moved material, not in its original deposition.
Its place on the timeline
"Middle Kingdom" is a period in the chronology of Egypt, which according to the museum's curatorial chronology runs from about 2030 to 1640 BCE. Source 2. In the site's period scheme for Egypt, which follows that chronology, the amulet is placed in the Middle Kingdom by the period name in its record, and appears under the Egypt tab and on the culture page.
Where it is now
Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, record 33.1.50. On 22 October 2026 the record stated "On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 109". The reading trail "Objects for the afterlife" continues from here to the shabti from the tomb of Sennedjem.
The object's connections
The object's connections
Culture, period, place, type and holder: every connection comes from the record or a cited source.
Object
Scarab amulet from Lisht
Period
- The Middle Kingdom of Egypt: reunification from ThebesPer the museum
Region
Kind of find
Displayed at
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkGallery 109, The Met Fifth Avenue
On the trail
Compare
- Scarab with a crocodile-headed figureTwo scarabs: one from a tomb at Lisht, one "from Canaan"; the same form, two kinds of record
Source
Sources and further reading
The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.
- 1
Scarab Amulet, collection record 33.1.50
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
- 2
Egypt, 2000–1000 B.C. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, chronology)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
