LIST OF PLATES.
| PLATE | |
| [I]. | Some specimens of rings. |
| [II]. | Scene representing the Chancellor of Tût-ankh-Amen investing a Governor of Ethiopia with the signet-ring of office. |
| [III]. | Pre-dynastic cylinder-seals. |
| [IV]. | Impressions of early cylinder-seals. |
| [V]. | Cylinder-seals of the Fourth to Sixth Dynasties. |
| [VI]. | Cylinder-seals of the Twelfth Dynasty. |
| [VII]. | Cylinder-seals of the Twelfth to Seventeenth Dynasties. |
| [VIII]. | Miscellaneous cylinder-seals. |
| [IX]. | Scarabs bearing royal names. Fourth to Twelfth Dynasties. |
| [X]. | Scarabs of the kings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties. |
| [XI]. | Scarabs of officials of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Dynasties. |
| [XII]. | Scarabs of officials of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XIII]. | Scarabs of officials of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XIV]. | Scarabs of officials of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XV]. | Scarabs of officials of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XVI]. | Scarabs of officials of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XVII]. | Scarabs of officials of the Twelfth to Fourteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XVIII]. | Decorative Scarabs: Twelfth to Eighteenth Dynasties. |
| [XIX]. | Decorative Scarabs: Twelfth to Eighteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XX]. | Decorative Scarabs: Twelfth to Eighteenth Dynasties—continued. |
| [XXI]. | Scarabs of the Hyksos Kings. (I). |
| [XXII]. | Scarabs of the Hyksos Kings. (II). |
| [XXIII]. | Scarabs of royal and other personages of the Hyksos Period. |
| [XXIV]. | Miscellaneous scarabs of the Hyksos Period. |
| [XXV]. | Decorative scarabs, mostly of the Hyksos Period. |
| [XXVI]. | Scarabs of kings, etc., mostly of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Dynasties. |
| [XXVII]. | Scarabs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. (Thothmes I to Hatshepsut.) |
| [XXVIII]. | Scarabs of the Eighteenth Dynasty—continued. (Thothmes III and his family.) |
| [XXIX]. | Officials of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and kings, etc., from the tomb of Maket, at Gurob (temp. Thothmes III). |
| [XXX]. | Scarab of the Eighteenth Dynasty—continued. |
| [XXXI]. | Scarab of the Eighteenth Dynasty—continued. |
| [XXXII]. | Historical scarabs of Amenhetep III: |
| 1. Kirgipa and her Harîm. | |
| 2. The Lion Hunts of Amenhetep III. | |
| 3. The Parents of Queen Thŷi and the Limits of the Egyptian Empire. | |
| [XXXIII]. | Historical scarabs of Amenhetep III—continued: |
| 1. The Wild Cattle hunt. | |
| 2. The Lake at Zarukha. | |
| [XXXIV]. | Scarabs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. |
| [XXXV]. | Scarabs of the Nineteenth Dynasty (Rameses II). |
| [XXXVI]. | Scarabs bearing royal names: Meren-ptah I to Sa-Amen. |
| [XXXVII]. | Scarabs of the Twenty-second to Twenty-fifth Dynasty Kings. |
| [XXXVIII]. | Royal and private scarabs and rings (Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties). |
| [XXXIX]. | Scarabs bearing mottoes, good wishes, etc. |
| [XL]. | Scarabs bearing mottoes, good wishes, etc.—continued. |
| [XLI]. | Scarabs bearing names of figures of gods, etc. |
| [XLII]. | Hieroglyphics, flowers, etc. |
| [XLIII]. | Miscellaneous royal and private scarabs. |
| [XLIV]. | Miscellaneous royal and private scarabs—continued. |
INTRODUCTION
TO
THE STUDY OF EGYPTIAN SEALS.
1. General Remarks.
General Remarks on Egyptian seals.
There are few small objects of antiquity which present themselves so often to the traveller’s notice in Egypt, as the little seals of stone, pottery and other material, carved in various forms and engraved on their base, or around their circumference, with an ornamental device or brief hieroglyphic inscription. These seals are found in a variety of forms; some of them are cylindrical in shape, others are button-shaped, but by far the greater number are carved to represent the scarabaeus beetle standing upon an elliptical base, the under side of which is engraved with the device or inscription intended to be impressed upon the sealing clay. The specimens of this last variety of seal are universally known as “Scarabs.”[[1]] Like the gems of Greece and Italy, Egyptian seals are generally found in excellent preservation; other and larger antiquities usually show on their face the signs of weathering, or they bear the marks of mutilation by man, but these interesting little monuments of a long past age often continue to this day as perfect in their finish and delicate workmanship as when they first left the hands of the ancient lapidary. The soil of Egypt literally teems with them. Thousands have been found among the débris of long deserted and ruined towns and temples; the fellah often turns them up in the soil whilst ploughing his fields, and rich harvests of these little objects have been gathered by the antiquary from the myriad tombs that line the desert edge on both sides of the Nile from Alexandria and El Arîsh to Aswân. Outside the boundaries of the Nile Valley also, Egyptian seals are frequently discovered; and in our museums are to be seen specimens from Italy, Sicily, Cyprus and the Greek Islands, as well as from the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and even from as far afield as Nineveh and the valley of the Euphrates.
Clay impressions of seals.
Besides the actual seals, pieces of fine clay bearing impressions of them are often brought to light by the excavator; some of these served as sealings to jars of wine, honey, etc., whilst others had been affixed, like modern seals of wax, to documents written on papyrus or leather. The documents to which some of them had been attached have, unfortunately, too often perished from decay, or they have been consumed by fire, but in the stamped clay may still nearly always be seen the holes for the string, or the markings of it, by which the seal was fixed to the document: in some instances even the string itself remains. These sealings are usually unearthed in excellent preservation, and they are consequently as useful for the purposes of study as the seals themselves.