Fake Scarab with Cobras
Title
Fake Scarab with Cobras
Description
A fake scarab decorated with four cobras in a brown stone. The clypeus is triangular and rather worn, and the head is very small, almost non existant. The thorax is shaped like an elongated pentagon and the elytra is divided in two, with notches on each side near the thorax, and a larger triangle at the back. The legs are tucked under the body. The whole scarab is pierced along the length of the body.
The back face is inscribed four Uraei in a quadripariate layout. The encircling line is very rough and worn, but the Uraei are farly well carved with rough hatching on the inside surface. In one area there are faint traces of green, possibly a glaze.
The decoration on this scarab is paralleled by a series of New Kingdom scarabs with four cobras at the Petrie Museum (e.g. UC60392; UC61417), and one side of a flat seal found in the fill of the 18th Dynasty "Tomb of Maket" at Lahun (Newberry, pl. 29, no. 45). A green scarab with a similar motif, but with eight cobras and of much finer work comes from Gurob and is also dated to the 18th Dynasty (UC27703). Despite these similarities, it is difficult to say if this scarab is genuine, as numerous fakes are known and there is no secure findspot. The front does not appear to parallel known ancient types and the back has some roughness about it.
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 four Uraei in a quadripariate layout. The encircling line is very rough and worn, but the Uraei are farly well carved with rough hatching on the inside surface. In one area there are faint traces of green, possibly a glaze.
The decoration on this scarab is paralleled by a series of New Kingdom scarabs with four cobras at the Petrie Museum (e.g. UC60392; UC61417), and one side of a flat seal found in the fill of the 18th Dynasty "Tomb of Maket" at Lahun (Newberry, pl. 29, no. 45). A green scarab with a similar motif, but with eight cobras and of much finer work comes from Gurob and is also dated to the 18th Dynasty (UC27703). Despite these similarities, it is difficult to say if this scarab is genuine, as numerous fakes are known and there is no secure findspot. The front does not appear to parallel known ancient types and the back has some roughness about it.
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: 25 mm
Width: 20 mm
Depth: 10mm
Type
Identifier
C.009.002
QM E40003.2
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. (1925). Buttons and Design Scarabs: illustrated by the Egyptian Collection in University College, London. British School of Archaeology in Egypt, pl. 18, no. 1404 = UC61417
Newberry, P. (1908). Scarabs: an introduction to the study of Egyptian seals and signet rings. Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd, pl. 29, no. 45
Scarabs. (18th Dynasty). [Scarab, green, F.77. From Gurob]. Petrie Museum, London. UC27703.
Scarabs. (New Kingdom). [Steatite scarab seal, with stylized back]. Petrie Museum, London. UC60392.
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 Cobras,” First World War Antiquities, accessed May 17, 2024, https://ww1antiquities.omeka.net/items/show/91.
Comments