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Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · jewelry

Scarab with Bound Captive

Source of record: Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

<p>This light beige steatite scarab was originally glazed blue or green. The piece is inscribed on the flat underside with an image of a captive Libyan and a short column of hieroglyphics. The top of the piece is high with a detailed incised design. The workmanship is good and the piece is carefully made. This scarab functioned as a protective amulet and had royal connotations. It was originally mounted or threaded. The bottom motif refers to the royal control over all foreign countries and should ward off all dangers for its owner. It is imaginable that soldiers on an expedition or at the frontier used such amulets. The image of a fettered captive is a popular motif on scarabs, however, the figure of a captive is usually subordinate to the figure of a king. In this case, there is no representation of the king, only the short inscription, which refers to him. It is possible that such an amulet should provide magical protection for Egyptians traveling abroad or for Egyptian allies. The very round base and the style of the carvings are typical for the early 18th Dynasty.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.10' rel='external'>Scarab with Bound Captive</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1

English description

[Translation] The sign order has been changed for aesthetic reasons, but the content is obvious. The figure of the captive has not only an iconic function, but it is also a determinative for the term ""foreign lands."": Lord of all foreign lands.

Cross-references (2)

  • Walters-AccNum 42.10 tier-2
  • Walters-id 5639 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.