The commemorative scarabs of

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...

were issued to commemorate the deeds of the pharaoh during his reign. Such scarabs were found in several archaeological sites of the Near East, from

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. Over two hundred of them are known to exist in museums and collections around the world. Most of the scarabs are made of

steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium-rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in subdu ...

painted blue or green. Their length varies between 4.7 and 11 cm, their width between 7 and 8.9 cm. Most of them are pierced for threading. On the basis of their inscriptions the scarabs can be divided into five groups (in parentheses the number of scarabs of the type found on several sites): # "Lion hunt scarabs" (123) # "Marriage scarabs" (56) # "Lake scarabs" (11) # "Bull hunt scarabs" (5) # "Gilukhepa scarabs" (5) The scarabs are likely to have been made at the same time, in or after the 11th regnal year. The scarab beetle was a symbol of the sun god

Khepri Khepri (Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''ḫprj,'' also transliterated Khepera, Kheper, Khepra, Chepri) is a scarab-faced Egyptian pantheon, god in ancient Egyptian religion who represents the rising or morning sun. By extension, he can also repres ...

, and glazed materials were called ''tjehenet'' ('shining') in Egyptian, so the shining scarabs refer to the king, the dazzling Sun himself.

Groups

Lion hunt

The lion hunt scarabs emphasise the pharaoh's strength and bravery by recording that Amenhotep killed over a hundred lions (102; 110 on some scarabs) during the first ten years of his reign. These have the shortest inscription (7 lines), their average length is 7,7 cm. The lion hunt scarabs vary the most in size; the smallest scarab is 4,7 cm long, the largest is more than twice its size with a length of 9,5 cm.

Marriage

The so-called marriage scarabs actually refer not to the marriage itself, and neither do they mention a marriage date. They record the name of Amenhotep's chief queen

Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010 ...

(following that of her husband), along with the names of her parents, as if to explicitly state her non-royal birth: ''the name of her father is

Yuya Yuya (sometimes Iouiya, or Yuaa, also known as Yaa, Ya, Yiya, Yayi, Yu, Yuyu, Yaya, Yiay, Yia, and Yuy) was a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt ( 1390 BC). He was married to Thuya, an Egyptian noblewoman a ...

, the name of her mother is

Thuya Thuya (sometimes transliterated as Touiyou, Thuiu, Tuya, Tjuyu or Thuyu) was an Egyptian noblewoman and the mother of queen Tiye, and the wife of Yuya. She is the grandmother of Akhenaten, and great grandmother of Tutankhamun. Biography T ...

; she is married to the great king whose southern border is at Karoy and whose northern is Naharin.'' Tiye's importance is shown by defining the boundaries of the empire in terms of her. The length of the inscription on these scarabs is 9-10 lines, the scarabs' average length is 8,5 cm.

Lake

The lake scarabs commemorate the construction of an artificial lake for Queen Tiye in the 11th regnal year. On these, the name and titles of the pharaoh are followed by those of Tiye, the names of her parents, then the description of the lake that was dug in Tiye's town Djaruha. The lake was 3700×700 cubits large, and the royal couple was rowed on the lake in the royal barge ''Aten-tjehen.'' The name of the boat means 'Shining Sun-disc', this is the first appearance of this name which later becomes an epithet of the king himself. The lake scarabs vary the most in their texts, but the differences don't affect the meaning of the text itself. The text is 11 lines long, the average length of these scarabs is 8,4 cm.

Bull hunt

The bull hunt scarabs record that in the 2nd regnal year Amenhotep, followed by his soldiers and officials, went to Shetep (possibly the area of Wadi el-Natrun) on his barge Khaemmaat ('Appears in Truth'), charged at wild bulls by his chariot and killed them. On the first day he slayed 56 bulls, four days later he killed 40 of them. The bulls had been previously surrounded with a ditch. Hunt was not only a favourite pastime for the pharaohs, it also symbolized the ruler's strength and his victory over the forces of chaos, thus it equalled victory on a battlefield. These scarabs also list the titles of the king and mention Tiye. The bull hunt scarabs have both the greatest length (9,9 cm) and the longest text. The only scarab which doesn't have its back carved in the shape of a beetle is among these scarabs. This one has two longitudinal holes for suspension.

Gilukhepa

The Gilukhepa scarabs commemorate the arrival of Princess Gilukhepa, daughter of

Shuttarna II Shuttarna II (or Šuttarna) was a king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in the early 14th century BC. Family Shuttarna II was the successor and probably a son of Artatama I. He was succeeded by his sons, Artashumara, under dubious circumstance ...

Mitanni Mitanni (–1260 BC), earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, ; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian language, Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria (region), Syria an ...

into the pharaoh's harem in the 10th regnal year. She had a retinue of 317 ladies-in-waiting. Tiye is also mentioned on the scarab. The length of the text is 10 lines, the average length of these scarabs is 7,2 cm.

Inscription of a scarab

Inscription on one of the lion hunt scarabs:Global Egyptian Museum
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Horus Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...
, the Mighty Bull, appearing in truth G16-s-mn:n:Y1-h:p-w:Z2-s-g:r-H- The Two Ladies, who establishes law and pacifies a:N17:N17-G8-aA:a:xpS-H-A24-?:A*t-T14-Z3-rsw:t the Two Lands; the Golden Horus, strong of arm, who smites Asians, King of
Upper and Lower Egypt In History of ancient Egypt, Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the Early Dynastic Period (Egypt), unification of the realm. The concepti ...
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Nebmaatre Nebmaatre is the prenomen of a poorly attested ruler of the late Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt. Nebmaatre may have been a member of the early 17th Dynasty and as such would have reigned over the Theban region. Alternatively, Jü ...
, Son of Re, Amenhotep, ruler of Thebes, may he live! M23-N41:t-<-ti-Z4-i-i->-anx-ti-i-r:Aa1*t-E22:Z2- King's Wife Tiye, may she live! The number of lions W25:n:n-Hm-Z1:f-m-t*F29*t:f-I10:z:f-M8#-A#13- His majesty brought from his shooting, m-M4-t:N5:Z1-nfr-i-i-t:D21-M4-t:N5:V20-E22 from Year 1 to Year 10 H-s-Aa18-A-F29-Z7-Z4- total of lions, 102.

Gallery

References

* C. Blankenberg-van Delden
''The large commemorative scarabs of Amenhotep III''
Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui, Vol. 15 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969) . * Arielle P. Kozloff & Betsy M. Bryan, ''Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World'' (The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992) , pp. 67–69.

External links

{{Commons category, Scarabs of Amenhotep III

Commemorative scarabs of Amenhotep III
in ''Album du musée de Boulaq'', by Auguste Mariette.
''Lion hunt'' scarab (261) and ''marriage'' scarab (262)
on ''A Catalogue of the Scarabs Belonging to George Fraser'' (London: 1900) Archaeological discoveries in Egypt Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Amenhotep III Scarabs (artifacts)