Levantine Knock-Offs
Although in general awareness the stone seals in the form of the dung beetle are strongly associated with Egypt, they were more common in the Levant during the first half of the second millennium B.C.E. Owing to the region’s intensified political and commercial ties with Egypt, many scarabs came to the Syro-Palestine from Egypt or were even produced there locally. Middle Bronze Age imitations include the Canaanite scarab seal with the “an-ra” inscription (near right images), which is inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphic writing but makes only limited sense in the Egyptian language. Also from 16th-century Canaan comes the figural seal depicting a crocodile-headed figure holding a flower (possibly papyrus, the heraldic plant of Lower Egypt; middle images). The sixth–fifth-century scarab and its modern impression (far right images) is a typical example of Phoenician engraving tradition, which combined the Egyptian tradition and motifs with non-Egyptian iconography. The present seal shows the Egyptian god Osiris flanked by two protective winged goddesses, and a winged sun disc above.