The Iron Age of Israelite history, beginning with the Israelite settlement in the land of Canaan around 1200 BCE, corresponds to the beginning of the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty, the end of the New Kingdom. It continues through the Third Intermediate Period and part of the Late Dynastic Period to 586 BCE, when the Solomonic Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. That date falls in the middle of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty in Egypt (Ben-Tor, 82). The Iron Age is itself divided into two parts, Iron I (c. 1200 - c. 1000 BCE) and Iron II (c. 1000 - c. 600 BCE), which are stylistically and technologically distinct in the archaeological record.
The evolution and increasing use of stamp seals during this period seems to have some relationship to scarabs, and some types of stamp seals were perhaps directly derived from scarabs and scaraboids. Scaraboid stamp seals are shaped approximately like scarabs, but they lack the scarab detailing. According to Buchanan's System for the Terminology of Stamp Seals, the scaraboid developed from the scarab of Egypt during the second millenium to become one of the most popular seal forms in the Near East (Buchanan and Moorey, vol. II, xv). Circular scaraboids, some of which were used as weights, are a variation. One might discern a relationship between these stamp seals and scarabs. Tabloid seals, though not scarab-related, might have had Egyptian precursors (Buchanan and Moorey, vol. III, 16). However, other seals, particularly conoids, plaques, and cylinders, do not seem closely, if at all, related to the Egyptian scarab or other Egyptian forms, and some have hypothesized that they evolved separately under Hittite influence and that any resemblance to scarabs is incidental (Buchanan and Moorey, vol. III, 14).
During the 26th Dynasty, the most popular materials were lapis for scarabs and green jasper for scaraboids. Faience was also widely used. In accordance with the archaism that became fashionable at that time, there was a return to the use of the pale-blue color that typified the First Dynasty. H. R. Hall maintains that although some scholars have said that faience scarabs were of too fragile a material to allow the possibility that they were used as seals, the Egyptians were impressing their seals upon soft wax or clay, and faience would not have been easily broken. He notes that the conclusion that faience scarabs became purely amuletic is false; they maintained their former use as seals as well (Hall, 11).
Despite Hall's view, it is generally thought that scarabs had by this time become mostly amuletic. As signet items, they had largely been replaced by cylinder seals, which had been in continuous use, and the newer stamp seals. There is evidence of some continuity between scarabs, scaraboids, and stamp seals, some of which are beetle-shaped.
Kings' names appear on scarabs of all periods, and the Iron Age is no exception. The same holds true for emblems of royalty, such as the Sphinx. Among other common designs of the 20th through the 26th dynasties are negro-headed (Ethiopian) scaraboids, originating in the 18th dynasty and continuing through the 26th; the king himself, through the 22nd dynasty; spirals, revived in the 25th dynasty; names of nobles and high officials, 26th dynasty; "good luck" inscriptions minus the representations of gods, 26th dynasty; the three solar deities, 26th dynasty; green jasper or bloodstone ovoid, round-cornered scaraboids, restricted to the 26th dynasty; and plaques in the 26th dynasty (Hall, 6). Archaeological Context
As in the other time periods, both imported and local scarabs are found in Palestine dating to the Iron Age. Olga Tufnell (quoted in Buchanan and Moorey, vol. III, 17), states that Egyptian scarabs continued to reach Palestine regularly during the Iron Age. Of particular interest to this point is a scaraboid seal that was discovered at Tell en-Nasbeh, excavated by William Frederic BadŽ. Chester Charlton McCown writes of this Òscaraboid with a well-cut negroÕs head on the back, a well-known Egyptian type. The base, by way of contrast, has one of the crudest and most unintelligible designs of any. It is further evidence that such objects were imported in blank for local inscriptionÓ (McCown, 149).
Three or four scarabs found at Tell en-Nasbeh, in Tomb 32, have been dated to the 25th Dynasty by the unanimous agreement of Egyptologists. These are of chronological value because they suggest that T32 must have remained open until about 700," although the tomb's contents better reflect the early Iron II, "and that Egyptian influence must have continued down to that time (McCown, 148).
Amuletic Iron Age scarabs include the class of naturalistic scarabs. They do not have flat bases like signet scarabs, but instead are carved with the beetleÕs legs and belly. Like earlier funerary scarabs, these have loops so that they could be strung and suspended around the neck provides more evidence that these were amulets, not signets. A few of these Late Period scarabs have the heads of falcons instead of beetles' heads. All of the falcon-headed scarabs are made of lapis-lazuli and may have had very specific magical uses. Though we do not know the special magical significance of these naturalistic scarabs, the fact that they were found lying atop the necks and chests of entombed individuals contributes to the belief that they were indeed funerary amulets (Ben-Tor, 39).
Dr. Max Pieper of Berlin asserts that from 1200 BCE onward, one finds amulet scarabs with fish, lions and scorpions inscribed upon them. Such scarabs were found in Tomb 5 of the Tell en-Nasbeh excavations. The T5 scarabs were dated partly based on their associated pottery contexts, but the fish/lion/scorpion motifs can be used to date them to the beginning of Iron II. Pieper believes that although these scarabs were found in Palestine, they were probably executed in Egypt and reflect Egyptian influence in the region even at this late date. As for the significance of the animal representations, scorpions were believed to guard the bearer against harm. The lion and the fish are also is supposed to protect against evil and sickness, respectively. Thus all three animal signs have the significance of Ò[p]rotection against perils and sicknessesÓ and are used, as on scarab 1200 from Tomb 5, with the signs for prosperity, good fortune, and love. This particular scarabÕs amuletic character is fairly certain based on this evidence (Bade, Some Tombs of Tell en-Nasbeh, 28-33).
Linear animal representations, particularly quadrupeds, seem characteristic of the time period under discussion. Although quadrupeds were depicted even as early as Hyksos scarabs, they become very common in the Iron Age, and the increase in amuletic use may account for this. An example can be found at Tomb 118 of the cemetery at Tell es-SaÕidiyeh (Jordan), excavated by James Pritchard. Tomb 118 contained two seals and a scarab with quadruped representations (Pritchard, Fig. 23:7, 8, 9). The tomb itself can be definitively dated to the Iron Age because of the presence of a type of juglet that later becomes the characteristic black burnished juglet of Iron II. Pritchard also notes that the T118 rectangular stamp seal has a parallel at Lachish that has been dated to the 21st Dynasty, which further cements the date of the Tell es-SaÕidiyeh scarabs and stamp seals (Pritchard, 22).
Some of the scarabs and seal impressions from Tell en-Nasbeh were also linear animal figures, mostly quadrupeds. The few that were found in datable context are from somewhere between 1050 and 700 BCE. The closest parallels to these seals come from Jerusalem; Fig. 35:2 and 3 are similar to some of Macalister and Duncan's lion stamps (McCown, 154- 155). Some of the Tell en-Nasbeh seals, especially Fig. 35:7, seem to represent horses. They might fit into Buchanan's Horse Group classification, which is identified as a galloping [horse] as the central device [and] framed by birds, scorpions, or floral devices (Buchanan and Moorey, vol. III, 23). One scholar believes that this motif is evocative of the goddess Astarte or other local fertility goddesses, who were traditionally associated with these animals. The linear animal representations are found on all shapes of seals (Buchanan and Moorey, vol. III, 23).
In conclusion, there is basic continuity in the scarab tradition throughout its history, although new evolved forms appear from time to time. Differentiation between Late Bronze and Iron I scarabs is especially difficult because of the high degree of continuity. If style cannot be an accurate indicator of age, neither is the depositional context always helpful for dating.
Several points of continuity from earlier to Iron Age scarabs can be established. Scarabs were always used as both seals and amulets, though their main use varied with time. Kings' names remained among the most common inscriptions through scarabsÕ disappearance after the 26th Dynasty. Scarabs found in Palestine were both imported and made locally during all periods, and sometimes a single scarab contains both foreign and indigenous elements, an idea supported by blank-base Iron Age scarabs. Though scholars disagree on whether scarabs influenced the rise of stamp seals, it is beyond question that scarabs provide archaeologists with an important source of information about Egyptian influence in the Syro- Palestine area from the Middle Bronze through the end Iron Age, and about the life and history of those times.
Bibliography
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