PHOENICIAN CARNELIAN SCARAB ENGRAVED ANIMALS. CIRCA: 5TH CENTURY B.C.

拍品描述

A PHOENICIAN CARNELIAN SCARAB ENGRAVED WITH ANIMALS, CIRCA 5TH CENTURY B.C. Of characteristic oval form, the domed back carved as a stylised scarab beetle with schematic wing-cases and lateral hatching to indicate the elytra, the flat underside engraved in intaglio with a composition arranged along the vertical axis. In the upper field, a crouching lion or feline predator is shown attacking prey, its head lowered over the quarry and its tail curling behind, the musculature indicated by short summary cuts. Below, a winged figure appears with outspread pinions rendered in fine parallel striations, the wings extended horizontally. At the base of the field, a further quadruped, possibly a hound or lion, is shown recumbent with its tail arching upward. The stone is of warm honey-orange tone, translucent, with a polished bevelled edge to the border of the engraved face. The composition belongs to the well-established Phoenician and Punic repertoire of animal combat and protective winged genii. Predatory scenes of lions overpowering their prey drew on longstanding Near Eastern royal iconography, adapted by Phoenician glyptic workshops for use on personal seals. The winged figure between the animals, treated here with schematic body and horizontally spread wings, follows the type of the winged protective deity or genius disseminated throughout the eastern Mediterranean through Phoenician trade and shared with Cypriot, Etruscan, and later Punic production. The vertical stacking of motifs, rather than a single narrative scene, is typical of Phoenician scarab engraving, where the seal face is treated as a field for the accumulation of charged symbols. Carnelian was the preferred material for scarab seals across the Phoenician sphere. The stone was valued for its warmth of colour, its hardness, which held a crisp engraved line, and its association with protective and apotropaic properties in the wider Near Eastern and Egyptian traditions from which the scarab form itself descends. Phoenician engravers, working primarily at coastal centres such as Tharros in Sardinia and at sites across Cyprus and the Levant, adopted the Egyptian beetle form and reworked it as a personal signet, engraved with a heterogeneous repertoire drawing on Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and local Levantine sources. The resulting object functioned simultaneously as amulet and as seal, worn suspended or mounted in a swivel ring. This scarab exemplifies the character of Phoenician glyptic in the fifth century, in which Egyptian form, Near Eastern iconographic vocabulary, and a distinctively Phoenician taste for the accumulation of protective motifs are brought together on a single small field. The choice of carnelian and the retention of the beetle back place it firmly within the mainstream of Phoenician seal production, while the stacked composition of predator, winged genius, and second animal represents the repertoire at its most characteristic. Dimensions: Length 2.9 cm

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