Carved scarab amulets were among the most bountiful Egyptian artifacts found in the Late Bronze period Levantine sites. They often bore the names of Egyptian kings – often Ramesside pharaohs – or deities – Ptah, Amen-Ra, Horus, Sekhmet, and Thoth made the most appearances. It was also common for these scarabs to include “scenes with humans, personal names, expressions of good wishes, and geometric and floral designs” (Braunstein, 12).
These amulets were most likely imported or locally made by Egyptians rather than made by Canaanites in an Egyptianizing style. They are most often found in graves, and it is likely that the presence of Egyptian objects in Levantine graves symbolizes some form of elite influence, as these objects were likely not cheap nor common. Scarab amulets could be made of carnelian, steatite, or faience, sometimes with silver or gold mounting.
Citation:
Dothan, Trude. “Anthropoid Clay Coffins from a Late Bronze Age Cemetery near Deir El-Balaḥ (Preliminary Report).” Israel Exploration Journal 22, no. 2/3 (1972): 65-72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27925330.
Reade, Wendy J., Dan Barag, and Eliezer D. Oren. “Glass Vessels and Beads from the Late Bronze Age Temple at Tel Sera’, Israel.” Journal of Glass Studies 59 (2017): 11-21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/90013816.
Photographs courtesy of http://www.imj.org.il/ and https://stellabooks.com/.
The Levantine Scarab 