Scarab
Middle Kingdom
Not on view
This scarab was made out of amethyst, a semi-precious stone. Polished to a striking degree, the piece has a beautiful reflective surface that might have alluded to the sunlight. The amulet’s flat underside is undecorated, which is often the case for scarabs in semi-precious stones. Possibly the shape and material of such scarabs might have been regarded as providing enough magical power without added text or images, though an additional inscribed gold plate might have originally covered the scarab’s base.
The scarab beetle’s habit of rolling large dung balls across the ground was associated by the ancient Egyptians with the travel of the sun. They also thought that this beetle self-generated spontaneously, and both aspects made the scarab a potent symbol of creation and regeneration.
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