Image Details

Copyright institute of Nautical Archaeology

Inscribed with the name of Nefertiti, wife of the “heretic pharaoh” Akhenaten (1352–1336 B.C.), this small gold scarab seal, provides an important clue to the date of the Uluburun ship. The scarab was found near a jeweler’s hoard of scrap gold and silver; if it was part of this hoard, then by the time the ship sank the scarab had lost its symbolic value and become simply another piece of gold jewelry. Thus the ship must have gone down after the death of Nefertiti—sometime toward the end of the 14th century B.C.