Figs. 102 and 103.
A number of large seals are oval in form; one of these, with a device of animals incised upon the back, shown in fig. [93], bears upon the base the blundered cartouche of Amenemhat III. One of rectangular form (fig. [94]) is rather of the nature of a stamp, being without decoration upon the back other than the necessary suspension hole in the attachment, while upon the base is the device previously described as belonging to the period which precedes the Middle Kingdom—between the Sixth and Eleventh Dynasties, from its analogy to the button-seals of that time. Other stamps are illustrated in figs. 95 and 96, having oval bases. They date from the Seventeenth Dynasty, bearing the names of Seqen-en-ra and Se-Amen. Another stamp (fig. [97]) of larger size, has a simple handle down the middle of the back. The device in this case represents a number of captives or votives below the emblem of Anubis. This class of stamp, used generally for the sealing up of tomb-doors, as in the case of the tomb of Thothmes IV at Thebes, seems to date from the Eighteenth Dynasty. Fig. 98 represents another common form of the same period, itself dating to the reign of the emblem upon it, Thothmes III. A less usual class, dating from the Twelfth Dynasty, is represented in fig. [99]. The back in this instance is plain, the form of the stamp resembling a slice from a sphere, with the device upon the plane face. A hole pierces the thickness. Figs. 100 and 101, represent other objects of this class, which from its Aegean analogies is of peculiar importance. The former specimen is dated, from an inscription on its back, to the reign of Usertsen III; the coil device is employed in each case. Two interesting examples are shown in figs. 102 and 103, the one being of the Eighteenth Dynasty, from its cutting and its glaze, the other of the Nineteenth Dynasty, from the cartouche of Rameses II incised upon it. A late example is that shown in fig. [104], and is a common type of the period of the Saïte renaissance in the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The inscription gives the name of Tahuti son of Aahmes, chief of the scribes of the temple. It is of pottery, glazed green, and is in the Collection of Captain Timmins.
Figs. 104 and 105.
Two typical stamps of the Thirtieth Dynasty, one in bronze, the other in pottery, are pictured in figs. 105 and 106. They are both without device upon the plain handle of suspension. The one fig. [105] bears the name of the Royal son Za-hapi-amen; the other bears the name of king Kheper-ka-Ra, otherwise Nekht-neb-ef, with whom the list of Egypt’s kings comes to a close.
Fig. 106.