Section I: Titles and Private Names
CNG 93, Lot: 1946. Estimate $500.
Sold for $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee. |
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Middle Kingdom. 13th Dynasty (circa 1781-1650 BC). Steatite scarab (23x16mm). Base engraved with the title and name of the (female) “servant of the ruler, Luken” within a frame. Intact but for small chip at base, once glazed, pierced for mounting. Very rare.
From the David Hendin Collection.
The name is otherwise unattested and is perhaps of foreign origin.
The very first scarab I owned was bought for me at the gift shop of the St. Louis Art Museum in around 1962, while I was still in high school (in those days the museum shop did indeed sell genuine ancient scarabs!). It was a gift from my father, who collected all kinds of items, and he thought I would get a kick out of an ancient Egyptian scarab. Little did he know…
In August 1967, I went to Israel as a volunteer and lived there for a year. My home for most of that time was an agricultural high school near Ashkelon. It was also about a forty minute bus ride from Gaza, which I visited several times. In the Gaza market, coins and numerous ancient objects were available. Although my main interest was coins, I remembered that scarab back at home, and took the opportunity to add many scarabs to my collection.
Many of the most interesting scarabs I acquired were selected for me over the years by friends, such as Dr. Ya’akov Meshorer, who I often accompanied to the market in Bethlehem, and Dr. Dan Barag, who I often accompanied to the Jerusalem market.
I bought many scarabs from the famous Jerusalem dealer Khalil Iskander Kando who most famously known as the man who sold the Dead Sea Scrolls. I also bought many of them at the Bethlehem shop of his son Samir Kando. In an interesting coincidence, another friend and dealer who sold me scarabs and coins was the late Abu Ali Altaweel, who was one of the Bedouin boys who, in 1947, found the Dead Sea Scrolls. Abu Ali was a tall, gentle man, who owned a nut shop in Bethlehem and sold coins and small artifacts as a sideline.
Here’s a story General Moshe Dyan told about Abu Ali in his book Living with the Bible:
I do not think anyone has ever succeeded in duping Abu Ali by trying to sell him a fake antique or a counterfeit coin. Whenever I bought anything from him, I could always be sure that it was authentic.
One day I received a message from him telling me that he had a beautiful earthenware censer that he was sure would interest me. We arranged to meet in Jerusalem and there I saw it.... I bought it and asked where it had been discovered. Abu Ali said it was found in a cave south of Bethlehem. I asked him to take me there. I wished to see what kind of cave it was, whether a burial cave, a dwelling, or one used for pagan rites.
He promised to do so and we fixed a date. But shortly before we were due to meet, he informed me that he was very busy and asked for a postponement. He postponed the next meeting too on some pretext or other. I refrained from interrogating too closely one so much smarter than I, and I just went on waiting. The hoped-for day finally arrived and we set out for the cave.
We passed Bethlehem, and about half way along the road to Hebron we turned off westward along a dirt track in the direction of the foothills.... [I saw what] had once been a burial cave. The remains of skeletons were still there. But in the course of time it had been used as a sheepfold and as shelter for shepherds in heavy rains....
Now that my curiosity about the cave had been satisfied, I asked Abu Ali why he had kept postponing our visit. “Oh, Wazir,” he replied, “this cave was being used at the time by a band of PLO saboteurs. It was they who began digging in their spare time and they who unearthed the ancient vessels and put them on the market. How, then, could I bring you here, you who are minister of defense? I had to wait until they moved elsewhere. Imagine what would have happened if I had brought you while they were still here. Either they would have opened fire on you, in which case your soldiers would have shot me; or you would have shot them, in which case their comrades would have suspected me of betraying them and delivering them into your hands, and then they would have murdered me and my children.’”
In Jerusalem I bought many scarabs from George Momjian, a gentleman who offered his friends as much to eat as he offered them to purchase! Another one of my favorite dealers in the 1970s was a man named Kar’aien who had a small shop on the Via Dolorosa. He always had young, blond Scandinavian women as his shop assistants, and there was a funny, smoky smell in the air all the time – and it wasn’t tobacco. Almost all of the scarabs in my collection were acquired between the 1960s and the very early 1980s in the shops in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, and other small towns in the area. Unfortunately, because they were small and relatively inexpensive objects, I did not record them the way I did for coins or weights, and at any rate receipts were almost never offered in the “shuks.” It is now my great pleasure to pass them along to a new generation of collectors.
—David Hendin
CNG is proud to present the David Hendin Collection of Scarabs. The following lots feature an impressive variety of types, with some true gems scattered throughout.
The scarab was a very popular amulet in ancient Egypt, its shape derived from the Scarabaeus Sacer, which was revered in Egypt as an embodiment of the creator god and a symbol of rebirth. Due to their regenerative power, they are often found in tombs, although their use was not limited to the funerary world. They were also used as lucky charms and worn, frequently as a ring mount, as protective amulets. This protective function is sometimes underscored by formulas invoking protection from the gods or for good luck.
The following lots have been arranged in order by typology and inscriptions. The first section is dedicated to the pieces bearing the name and titles of officials. These are the earliest scarabs in the collection, dating to the Middle Kingdom. Such scarabs are very important as they shed light on the complex Egyptian administration, often serving as the only source for the names and titles of the officials of the period.
The second section is comprised of scarabs engraved with the names of pharaohs and queens. This is probably the most remarkable part of the collection and includes a number of fascinating and very rare pieces.
To the Egyptians names carried a vital force. The names of kings were even more important as they carried the power of the ruler. These scarabs were produced as protective amulets for the public, and were not issued by the royal workshops.
An important factor to bear in mind is that Egyptians frequently reissued pieces to commemorate certain pharaohs. Some of them were so highly revered, such as Tuthmosis III, that their name was put on scarabs long after the lifetime of the king. As it is difficult to precisely determine which of them are lifetime and which are reissues, we have catalogued them under the pharaoh whose name they bear.
Special mention has to be given to two neatly carved scaraboids (lots 1968 and 1969) with attractive pale blue glazes. Among these an exceptionally rare piece bearing the name of Tutankhamun (the famous “King Tut”).
The third section is the largest and includes the so called “Hyksos” or “Canaanite” scarabs. The majority, if not all, of these were probably produced in Canaan while the region was under Egyptian influence. The Hyksos (“rulers of foreign lands”) were a people from western Asia who arrived in Egypt during the 11th Dynasty and ultimately came to ruler over Egypt between the 15th and 17th dynasty. We dated these to the Second Intermediate Period, although a small number might be slightly earlier, going back to the end of the Middle Kingdom. Again, it is difficult to date precisely.
The first part of the Hyksos section features engravings which can be generically described as “geometrical” and that are characterized by spiral scrolls, circles, coiled cord and cross patterns. Others were carved with symmetrical hieroglyphs or signs that do not seem to have any meaning together.
Following the Hyksos section, we offer a nice selection of animal and human themed scarabs and scaraboids. These include representations of lions, crocodiles, antelopes, hippopotamuses – all Nilotic animals familiar to the amulet owners. When human figures and deities are shown, they are usually shown in adoration, prayer, or standing near lotus flowers.
This section also features scaraboids with backs carved in the shape of human heads and various animals – baboons, antelopes, fish and many others. Carving the back of the amulet into an animal added another level of protection, invoking the deity the animal was associated with and supplementing the protective force provided by the base inscription.
The final section is comprised of miscellaneous scarabs, scaraboids, rings and plaques which do not fall under the themes of previous sections.
