Sacred Adornment Exhibition Interactive - Part 3

Part Three: Protective Scarabs

On most ancient Egyptian scarabs, the top of the scarab often looked like the actual beetle, while the flat underside had carved designs.

A black rectangle showing two views of the same cream colored scarab. The top view is carved to look like a real scarab and the bottom is carved with designs showing a figure crouched on the left and hieroglyphs inside a cartouche on the right.

Sometimes these designs contained the name and titles of its owner and could be used to stamp the seal of its holder into a soft surface.

The bottom of this scarab is inscribed with the name of Tuthmosis III, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

A black rectangle with a carved cream colored scarab on the left and an imprint in red clay on the right. The imprint shows a design of hieroglyphs inside a cartouche.

(Object E362.

Courtesy of Penn Museum.)

Sometimes these carved designs were purely decorative, with spirals or protective images.

The scarab on the left is different and is shaped like a hedgehog on top, and has spiral designs underneath. The scarab on the right has the sign for "protection" at the very bottom of its inscribed decoration.

A black rectangle with three views of a turquoise hedgehog shaped scarab on the left. The hedgehog has swirling designs carved underneath it. On the right is a light brown scarab with designs of a sphinx lying down at the top and a symbol meaning protection below.

(Object E9206 and E13812. Courtesy of Penn Museum)

Part 3 Task:

What do you think ancient Egyptians wanted protection from, thousands of years ago? Write down or draw a few of your ideas on your piece of paper. Talk about your ideas with someone else. Do they share your ideas? Do they have other ideas?

Once you have completed the task, click below to move on to Part 4!

Part 4 - Symbols

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