Carved scarab beetle on front side. Head with eyes showing. A groove separates the prothorax from the wing cases (elytra), which are divided by a line. A V-shaped notch at the top of each wing-case. Legs are delineated. A man confronting in the oval is carelessly depicted on the base in an enclosure. The scene is arranged horizontally; the man turned right, his left hand raised, the right lowered. In the irregular oval, on the right side of the field, three hieroglyphic signs of the prenomen of Thutmose III (mn-ḫpr-rᶜ, normal type graphic) are clumsily stamped, which are at the same time the cryptographic form of Amun’s name. The item is probably a Hellenistic copy of an 18th-Dynasty scarab. Its surface is strongly abraded, probably as a result of water activity. It belongs to mass-produced types representing a wide variety of workshops of late Egyptian and Eastern origin (Naukratis, Phoenician and Punic types). Finds of this kind, dated to the 1st millennium BCE, especially to the second half, were very popular at many sites, mainly necropolises, around the Mediterranean, but until now are unknown on Adriatic shores. It is most likely a product of the Ptolemaic Period or Late Roman Republic.
Catalogue entry
Hard-paste scarab Franciscan Monastery, Košljun Archaeological collection without inv. no. Krk (Curicum), courtyard of the house Šinigoj, date unknown Ptolemaic period (306-30 B.C.) Hard paste: carving 1.8 x 1.3 x 0.65 cm
Resources
Tomorad, Mladen. „The Ancient Egyptian Antiquities in Institutional and Private Collections in Croatia“. U: Tomorad, Mladen (ur.). A History of Research into Ancient Egyptian Culture conducted in Southeast Europe. Oxford, 2015: 31-58. 51.
Tomorad, Mladen. „The Ancient Egyptian Collections in Croatia and the Project Croato-Aegyptica Electronica“. U: Derriks, Claire (ur.). Collections at risk: New Challenges in a New Environment - Proceedings of the 29th CIPEG Annual Meeting in Brussels, September 25-28, 2012, Royal Museums of Art and History Brussels, Belgium. Atlanta, 2017: 237-268. 238-239, 259-260.
Tomorad, Mladen. „The Early Penetration of Ancient Egyptian Artifacts and Dissemination of the Cults of Egyptian Divinities in Istria and Illyricum (1st Millennium B.C.-1st Century A.D.)“. U: Tomorad, Mladen (ur.). A History of Research into Ancient Egyptian Culture conducted in Southeast Europe. Oxford, 2015: 165-200. 171, no. 18, 193-194, fig. 142.
Tomorad, Mladen. „The phases of penetration and diffusion of Egyptian artefacts and cults in the region of Istria and Illyricum (from the 7th c. B.C. to the 4th c. A.D.)“. U: Györy, Hedvig (ur.). Aegyptus et Pannonia V. Budapest, 2016: 185-226 + Plates 69-81. 196-197, 203-204, Pl. 74.
Tomorad, Mladen. Staroegipatska civilizacija, sv. II: Uvod u egiptološke studije. Zagreb, 2017. 83.
Tomorad, Mladen; Sliwa, Joachim. “Tri staroegipatska skarabeja iz Arheološke zbirke franjevačkog samostana na Košljunu, Hrvatska - Three Ancient Egyptian scarabs from the Archaelogical Collection of the Franciscan Monastery on Košljun, Croatia”. Prilozi Instituta za arheologiju 32 (2015): 243-250. 243-247, no. 2, fig. 2.
