AN BLACK STONE SCARAB LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXVI-XXX, CIRCA 664-525 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN BLACK STONE SCARAB, LATE PERIOD, 26TH-30TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 664-525 B.C. Of oval form, the underside carved in sunk relief with a hieroglyphic composition arranged within three horizontal registers divided by incised ground lines. The signs retain traces of pale sandy encrustation within the cut lines, which throws the design into relief against the dark, finely-grained stone. The upper register carries a group of elongated signs including what appears to be a reed-leaf and adjacent forms; the central register presents a paired arrangement of vertical signs flanked by horizontal elements, with a small reddish accretion adhering to the surface at the left edge; the lower register contains further linear signs reading horizontally. The cutting is shallow and fluent, with the tool marks visible along the interior of each glyph. The edges of the base are slightly worn, and the stone retains an even, matte surface throughout. The inscription belongs to the broad category of amuletic and votive scarab legends produced in great numbers during the Late Period, in which hieroglyphic signs were combined to form the names of deities, royal epithets, or auspicious formulae intended to channel divine protection to the wearer. Without a secure reading of the individual signs, the composition is consistent with the standard repertoire of apotropaic legends found on private scarabs of the period, in which the scarab beetle itself, the form of the object, embodied the solar god Khepri and the daily regeneration of the sun. Worn in life and deposited with the deceased, such scarabs functioned simultaneously as seals, amulets, and statements of piety. The choice of a dark, hardstone matrix rather than the more familiar steatite or faience is characteristic of a strand of Late Period production in which the durability and sombre tonality of the stone were valued in their own right. Egyptian lapidaries of the Saite and later dynasties revived archaising forms and materials in deliberate dialogue with earlier pharaonic tradition, and hardstone scarabs of this kind belong to that wider programme of conscious revivalism. The dense, fine-grained stone here, likely a basalt or schist, takes a crisp cut and a low polish, qualities that made it suitable for both burial use and continued handling as a seal. This scarab exemplifies the workshop production of Late Period hardstone amulets, in which the canonical form of Khepri was rendered in a durable dark stone and inscribed with a compact hieroglyphic legend. It belongs to a tradition in which the scarab functioned as both a personal seal and a guarantor of solar regeneration, and its sober material and disciplined cutting place it within the archaising aesthetic that defined Egyptian glyptic in the centuries before the Persian conquest. Length: 3.8cm

图片