Fake Scarab with Cartouche of Thutmose III
Title
Fake Scarab with Cartouche of Thutmose III
Description
A fake scarab with the name of Thutmose III in a buff-orange stone covered in a green glaze. The clypeus is diamond shaped and incised with five vertical lines. It sits below a very small triangular head and a large thorax. The elytra is divided unevely in two, with triangular notches on each side near the thorax, and a larger triangle at the back. The legs are tucked under the body and decorated with lines indicating hairs. The whole scarab is pierced along the length of the body, but the hole is off-center. The edges of the top surface are extensively chipped showing the buff-orange stone beneath and there are oblique striations over the surface of the elytra and thorax.
The back face is inscribed, with wear all around the outside face and one large chip to the bottom, showing the pale stone substrate. The face is carved with a very rough cartouche of Thutmose III (r?-mn-?pr). On the right and left are nonsense marks that bear little resemblance to real glyphs. The carving overall is very rough with numerous chips below the glaze. The glyphs are filled with fine brown encrustations.
While genuine Thutmose III scarabs are numerous, the poor quality of the carving and the inclusion of nonsense marks that bear no resemblance to the usual filler ornaments of such scarabs suggest this piece is a fake. In his "Forged Egyptian Antiquities" Wakeling includes a very similar fake scarab purporting to be of Thutmoses III (Fig. 8, No. 25). The extra glyphs on Wakeling's example are better formed, but here are barely indicated and impossible to decipher.
The scarab is part of a collection of nine antiquities and coins said to have been collected by Driver Leonard Dimmick near Mena Camp outside Cairo, Egypt. In February 1915 an article appeared in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin mentioning Roman coins excavated by Leonard near the Pyramids. He had sent these souvenirs back to his father in Australia, along with Egyptian coins, trinkets and fossils. The artefacts deposited at the Queensland Museum by William Dimmick in 1923 probably match those sent home in 1915, plus a "stone curio" from Leonard's personal effects, returned to his father in 1916.
A letter dated 12 March 1923 from William Dimmick to AH Longman, Director of the Queensland Museum, records that his two sons "met in Egypt before going over and spent Sunday afternoons digging among the graves for curios of which they sent me several small ones." Although digging for artefacts in this way was not legal in Egypt, it was a common pastime for soldiers during the war. They might undertake such diggings alone, but often where lead to a likely spot by a local guide, who had seeded the area with genuine and genuine-looking artefacts for his unsuspecting followers to find. It is possible that some of the genuine antiquities in the colleciton were acquired in this way, but the fakes may have been purchased from an antiquities vendor. There are numerous descriptions of vendors selling fake antiquities to unsuspecting tourists and soldiers.
The back face is inscribed, with wear all around the outside face and one large chip to the bottom, showing the pale stone substrate. The face is carved with a very rough cartouche of Thutmose III (r?-mn-?pr). On the right and left are nonsense marks that bear little resemblance to real glyphs. The carving overall is very rough with numerous chips below the glaze. The glyphs are filled with fine brown encrustations.
While genuine Thutmose III scarabs are numerous, the poor quality of the carving and the inclusion of nonsense marks that bear no resemblance to the usual filler ornaments of such scarabs suggest this piece is a fake. In his "Forged Egyptian Antiquities" Wakeling includes a very similar fake scarab purporting to be of Thutmoses III (Fig. 8, No. 25). The extra glyphs on Wakeling's example are better formed, but here are barely indicated and impossible to decipher.
The scarab is part of a collection of nine antiquities and coins said to have been collected by Driver Leonard Dimmick near Mena Camp outside Cairo, Egypt. In February 1915 an article appeared in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin mentioning Roman coins excavated by Leonard near the Pyramids. He had sent these souvenirs back to his father in Australia, along with Egyptian coins, trinkets and fossils. The artefacts deposited at the Queensland Museum by William Dimmick in 1923 probably match those sent home in 1915, plus a "stone curio" from Leonard's personal effects, returned to his father in 1916.
A letter dated 12 March 1923 from William Dimmick to AH Longman, Director of the Queensland Museum, records that his two sons "met in Egypt before going over and spent Sunday afternoons digging among the graves for curios of which they sent me several small ones." Although digging for artefacts in this way was not legal in Egypt, it was a common pastime for soldiers during the war. They might undertake such diggings alone, but often where lead to a likely spot by a local guide, who had seeded the area with genuine and genuine-looking artefacts for his unsuspecting followers to find. It is possible that some of the genuine antiquities in the colleciton were acquired in this way, but the fakes may have been purchased from an antiquities vendor. There are numerous descriptions of vendors selling fake antiquities to unsuspecting tourists and soldiers.
Creator
Date
AD 1900 - AD 1915
Format
Height: 7 mm
Width: 18 mm
Depth: 14 mm
Type
Identifier
C.009.001
QM E40003.1
Coverage
License
© Queensland Museum, Peter Waddington.
Medium
Accrual Method
Provenance
Collected by Drv. Leonard Dimmick, Mena Camp, Egypt, 1915.
Donated by Mr. William Dimmick to the Queensland Museum, 15 March 1923.
Donated by Mr. William Dimmick to the Queensland Museum, 15 March 1923.
Rights Holder
Queensland Museum, Brisbane
Bibliographic Citation
Flinders Petrie, W. M. (1917). Scarabs and cylinders with names: illustrated by the Egyptian Collection in University College, London. London School of Archaeology in Egypt, pls. 26-29.
Newberry, P. (1908). Scarabs: an introduction to the study of Egyptian seals and signet rings. Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd, pl. 30.
Wakeling, T.G. (1912). Forged Egyptian Antiquities. A&C Black, fig. 8, no. 25.
Queensland Museum Donor Schedule #23/55 (1923).
Queensland Museum Donor Schedule #23/143 (1923).
Queensland Museum Inwards Correspondence #00127 (1923).
Queensland Museum Outward Correspondence #00055 (1923).
Queensland Museum Miscellaneous Register, A737-42; 752.
Local and General News. (1915, February 23). Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), p. 7. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53354663
National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office; B2455, First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920; DIMMICK L, Dimmick Leonard : SERN 312, 1914 – 1920.
Relation
P.009
Contributor
Mr James Donaldson
Files
Collection
Citation
Modern (Egyptian), “Fake Scarab with Cartouche of Thutmose III,” First World War Antiquities, accessed March 17, 2025, https://ww1antiquities.omeka.net/items/show/90.
Comments