Digital Lunch Seminar Series: Egyptian and Egyptianising Scarabs and Scaraboids
Foto: Esfandiari/UHH
When: Mon, 08.07.2024 12:00 PM until 1:00 PM
Where: Digital
Egyptian and Egyptianising Scarabs and Scaraboids: Glazed Delicacies
Stelios Aspiotis, Olivier Bonnerot, and Leah Mascia
This talk aims to present the preliminary results of an interdisciplinary study dedicated to a corpus of ancient Egyptian and Egyptianising scarabs and scaraboids part of the collection of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. These portable written artefacts are among the oldest rock-based amulets and seals of the ancient Egyptian world. Fashioned in great numbers since the Middle Kingdom (c. 1938-1630 BCE), these objects soon crossed the borders of the Egyptian lands and began to be attested across the Mediterranean basin. The popularity of these artefacts led to the progressive instalment of centres of production outside Egypt, from the Iberian Peninsula to the southern Levant. Despite this wide geographical circulation, scarabs and scaraboids frequently shared common features, namely an outer glazed layer, which hinders their mineral-phase characterisation. The material analysis of these objects has mostly been based on naked-eye observations until now. Considering the uniqueness and historical value of these cultural heritage objects non-destructive and non-invasive methods operating in reflection mode and sensitive to both chemistry and structure are favoured. Therefore, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) are the best candidates and can provide valuable information about the structure, chemistry, and firing conditions of these glazed objects.
In this lecture, we will discuss the results of our study of (i) the design, the engraved inscriptions, and the figural motifs characterising these historical objects and show (ii) how the combination of Raman spectroscopic and XRF analyses can lead to the determination of the elemental composition within each mineral phase and the separation of different glazing techniques and firing conditions of these written artefacts.