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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 6478471, member: 110350&quot;]Continuation: Petrie&#039;s 1917 book <i>Scarabs and Cylinders with Names </i>also offers a possible interpretation of the lion and sun disk motif, in its text explicating Plate LV:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1258789[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>So, according to this theory, the Ra (sun disk) and lion motif on my scarab could be a reference to the royal badge of Psamtik I, of the 26th Dynasty, who reigned from 664–610 BCE.</p><p><br /></p><p>Interestingly, the comparable scarab I discovered is still in the&nbsp; collection of the University College, London, now known as the Petrie Museum, bearing the number UC.14707:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1258793[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1258795[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The design of the top (scarab) side is quite different from mine, but I still think the bottom side is really quite similar.</p><p><br /></p><p>I found a second comparable lion and sun disk scarab (albeit not quite as similar) in the British Museum&#039;s collection as No. EA23617; see <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA23617" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA23617" rel="nofollow">https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA23617</a>.&nbsp; Here are two of the British Museum&#039;s photos of that scarab:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1258798[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1258800[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>A drawing of the same scarab can be found as No. 42 at Plate xxxvii of another publication by Petrie (Naukratis, Part I, 1884–5 (Third Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund), London), from 1886, recording the finds during the Naukratis digs in 1884-85 -- in other words, very close to the find spot of the first comparable scarab at Teh el Barud, three miles from Naukratis (see previous post).</p><p><br /></p><p>The text accompanying these photos at the British Museum&#039;s website states as follows in pertinent part:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Object Type scarab</p><p>Museum number EA23617</p><p>Description Mould-made scarab in glazed composition; back simply modelled with single outlines indicating clypeus, prothorax and elytra; at side, legs very simplified, indicated by two broken horizontal grooves; underside decorated with representation of a recumbent lion to right and sun-disc above its back; motif stamped rather than incised, encircled by groove near edge; longitudinally pierced; glossy yellow glaze well preserved; no core visible.</p><p>Cultures/periods 26th Dynasty Production date 600 BC-570 BC (mainly).</p><p>Production place Made in: Scarab Factory Africa: Egypt: Lower Egypt: Nile Delta: Naukratis: Scarab Factory</p><p>Excavator/field collector Excavated by: Egypt Exploration Fund Findspot Found/Acquired: Naukratis Africa: Egypt: Lower Egypt: Nile Delta: Naukratis.</p><p>Materials glazed composition&nbsp; Technique glazed mould-made stamped pierced</p><p>Dimensions Length: 1.15 centimetres Thickness: 0.60 centimetres Width: 0.90 centimetres.</p><p>Curator&#039;s comments: . . .</p><p><b>Scarabs with a lion motif depicted on the base belong to a standard group produced at the “Scarab Factory” </b>(on its various productions, see Webb forthcoming). Petrie illustrated a number of different versions (Petrie 1886, pl. XXXVII, 34-45). This scarab belongs to a type which was widely distributed in the Mediterranean area and Southern Russia (Gorton 1996, 93, 95-96, type XXVIII A, subtype A49-72, especially A50 for this piece).&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately, I don&#039;t have access to the Gorton book -- Gorton, Andrée Feghali, <i>Egyptian and Egyptianizing scarabs: a typology of steatite, faience, and paste scarabs from Punic and other Mediterranean sites </i>(Oxford, 1996). But it seems that the suggestion is that even if my scarab was produced at the &quot;Scarab Factory&quot; at Naukratis (or Teh el Barud), it could have been found in many other places.</p><p><br /></p><p>The material composition of my scarab, then, may well be relevant to the question of its place of origin: if it&#039;s really made of glazed steatite (a/k/a soapstone), as the dealer suggested, than it would have to have been carved. But if it&#039;s actually made of glazed pottery or composition material, then the chances are it was made in a mold, like the two comparable scarabs and other products of the &quot;Scarab Factory.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Leaving aside the question of my scarab&#039;s material and turning again to its possible interpretation, I found an article at the British Museum&#039;s website proposing an alternative meaning, namely that the lion and sun disk motif, rather than being the royal badge of Psamtik I, may instead be a coded reference to Amun-Ra in his capacity as the Hidden One, with the meaning revealed via the process of acrophony. See Naukratis: Greeks in Egypt; Scarabs, scaraboids and amulets, by Aurelia Masson, at pp. 26 &amp; 28-29 below. The third photo on p. 28 depicts the British Museum lion and sun disk scarab No. EA23617.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1258810[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1258811[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]1258813[/ATTACH]</p><p>If anyone has any thoughts on any of this, or has any scarabs of their own that they&#039;d like to post -- or any other leonine or felid artifacts! - please post them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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