[46] See the instances given by M. Menant in his Les Pierres Gravées de la Haute-Asie. Recherches sur la Glyptique Orientale, etc. Paris, 1886, p. 197 et seq.
[47] Ibid., p. 200.
[48] Hand-book of Archæology. London, 1867, pp. 253, 289. Recently Dr. Fritz Hommel, in his, Der babylonische Ursprung der ägyptischen Kultur, München, 1892, has endeavored to prove the contrary.
IV.[ToC]
THE OLDEST SCARABS. CLASSIFICATION AND VALUE OF THE SCARAB TO THE SCHOLAR OF TO-DAY. LARGE INSCRIBED HISTORICAL SCARABS.
The oldest scarabs, as to which one can feel any certainty of their being genuine, are those I have mentioned bearing the name of Neb-Ka incised on the under surface. This pharaoh was of the IIIrd Dynasty and was living according to Brugsch-Bey, (3933-3900 B.C.)[49] That would make 5,826 years past according to Brugsch. Auguste Mariette would make it much more ancient.
These scarabs were made of pottery and glazed a pale green. It has been stated by some archæologists that the oldest scarabs were not engraved, the under part being made to represent the legs of the beetle folded under its body, but this is only a supposition, as the age can only be determined with any certainty, by the inscriptions incised on the under part and those not so inscribed, may be of different periods, some of very late times.