32 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



such as Nub, Grold, -wliicli convey no special meaning to us, and whicli 

 by their shape cannot have been inserted as purely decorative designs 

 to fiU^an otherwise empty space. Unfortunately the amulitic scarabs 

 have never been studied thoroughly and scientifically, and oui' know- 

 ledge on that subject is still veiy limited. 

 Scarabs may be divided into nine classes : 



I. Kings' names. 

 II. jSTames of private persons. 

 lit. Records of events. 

 rv. Titles, royal or priestly. 



V. ITames of gods. 

 VI. Sacred signs. 

 vn. Charms expressed in words, 

 vm. Sacred animals. 

 IX. Decorative designs. 



I. Of royal names there are fourteen in this collection. The 

 earliest is Nub-hetep (No. 1 ) of the XYIth dynasty. The dark-brown 

 of this scarab was not its original coloui\ It was once green, but the 

 greens and blues of copper, with which scarabs are glazed, are fugitive 

 under certain conditions, and the green changes to brown while the 

 blue fades to white. It is very tempting to place No. 52 in the Vth 

 dynasty, as the scarab of King An.^ The name An is written with 

 a fish, but, as Professor Petrie pointed out to me, in this case the lotus- 

 design is distinctly of the XlXth dynasty (compare the lotus in the 

 scarab of Ptameses II., No. 11). This scarab, therefore, falls under 

 class vm., and must be considered there. The scarabs of Menkheper- 

 Ea (Thothmes III. of the XYIIIth dynasty) are the most numerous 

 of all royal names. There are several varieties in this collection. No. 2 

 has the king's cartouche upheld by two kneeling figures, emblematic 

 of the Upper and Lower Nile, symbolising the king's sovereignty over 

 the Two Lands, i.e. North and South Egypt. No, 3 has the royal name 

 flanked on each side by a degenerate form of the crown of Lower 

 Egypt repeated four times. The crown of Lower Egypt, the Eed 

 Crown, appears to have had some peculiarly symbolic meaning, as it 

 is constantly found on scarabs. No. 4 shows the king as a sphinx, 

 beneath whom is the prostrate figure of an enemy. No. 5, a very 



1 Vide " I'etiie's Historical Scaral.s. 



