Scarab
Description
<p>This serpentine scarab has a flat underside without a bottom design. The design of the back is very detailed, with fine incised lines and regular line flow. The proportions of the top are almost balanced, the workmanship of the piece is excellent, and it is elaborately made.This scarab functioned as a funerary amulet with renewal connotations. It was probably an inlay or the central piece of a winged scarab.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.547' rel='external'>Scarab</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A close-up of a dark green stone scarab with the back engraved in vertical register lines and a central panel; the surface shows mottling consistent with a worked serpentine object.
The image shows the entire back (elytra) of a scarab-like amulet. The top edge has evenly spaced crenellations, characteristic of a scarab outline. The central area contains faint, incised lines forming a segmented or rectangular layout, with multiple horizontal banding near the midsection. The lower field is dominated by vertical incisions in closely spaced rows, with an apparent inner border separating it from surrounding bands. The stone surface is mottled dark green to bluish-green with lighter patches and wear that softens fine details; the incisions remain visible but not crisp enough to confidently read any specific signs or spellings. No readable Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible. No clear royal cartouche or names are discernible at this resolution. Deities are not identifiable from the visible marks.
Connections
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 42.547 tier-2
- Walters-id 5325 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.