Yorkshire Museum volunteer Stephanie Parkinson reveals one of the fascinating Egyptian treasures she has been studying in the collections.

Over the course of the past few months, I have been documenting and researching some of the amazing ancient Egyptian collections held in the Yorkshire Museum. During this research a small, seemingly unremarkable, object captured my attention – and turned out to be anything but!

The object is crafted in steatite (more commonly known as soapstone) and assumes the easily recognisable form of a scarab beetle – an important ancient Egyptian motif. To the ancient Egyptians, the scarab was manifest and worshipped in the form of Khepri, the sacred solar deity synonymous with the restorative and regenerative properties of the rising sun. His name can be roughly translated to ‘he who comes into being’. Unique in the way the scarab beetle rolls balls of dung across the ground, the Egyptians connected this perpetual act with the forces that move the sun across the sky. The sun itself formed the crux of ancient Egyptian religious practice and Khepri, due to his solar connection, became a common symbol in art from the time.

These small, scaraboid objects are in fact fairly common. In Egypt, they began to appear in the early 2^nd Millennium BC, widely used as both protective amulets and wax seals, often bearing the name of the owner. Sometimes, seals bore the name of the current pharaoh as a declaration of loyalty, or otherwise relevant names of deities or pictorial scenes. These so-called ‘scaraboid seals’ provide us with an insight into the daily workings of ancient Egyptian society, and their provenance continues for dynasties until they were replaced by the signet ring in the Roman period.  early in the 2ndmillennium BC

This object is made all the more intriguing by the engraved seal present on the reverse. I immediately recognised the unmistakable feature of a cartouche, an oval marker designed to enclose and distinguish the sacred name of the Pharaoh. But which Pharaoh? Having previously experience in the interpretation and translation of hieroglyphs, I recognised the symbols as Men – Khepri (the scarab) – Ra (the solar disc). Together, they form the name Menkheperre, meaning ‘the appearance of Ra is established.’ This name is the royal or ‘throne’ name of the 18th dynasty warrior pharaoh, Thutmose III (1458 BC to 1425 BC). The throne name forms part of the full royal titulary of the Pharaoh, an important symbol of his supreme power and a declaration of his objectives as ruler.

Thutmose III ruled during the so-called ‘golden age’ of ancient Egypt. His co-regency with his step-mother Queen Hatshepsut began in 1458 BC, until he finally claimed the throne for himself after her death more than 20 years later. His succession to the throne marked the beginning of a long-standing campaign of territorial acquisition and expansion, with no fewer than 16 raids in a 20 year period. Thutmose III’s military successes became a key characteristic of his reign, and he is credited with transforming Egypt into an international superpower holding undeniable strength and influence. To this day, he is considered to be one of the greatest warrior Pharaohs to preside over the ancient Egyptian throne.

An abundance of historical evidence enables us to date the reign of Thutmose III quite specifically, to a period of approximately half a century during the New Kingdom. It would be easy to presume that this information provides us with a narrow date range for this particular object, based on the assumption that scaraboid seals bearing pharaonic titles were produced in the years during their reign. In this particular case, however, we find an interesting exception to this tradition. Due to the extreme popularity of Thutmose III, his mortuary cult continued to prosper for many centuries after his death, his name enduring as a successful model of divine kingship.  Eventually, the hieroglyphics themselves came to represent a sort of protective charm, and are thus commonly found on scaraboid seals produced many hundreds of years after the death of Thutmose III. At the very least, we can certainly provide a date for this seal between the pharaoh’s succession to the throne in -1458, and the end of the New Kingdom around 1070 BC.

It has been a fantastic opportunity to delve into the history of ancient objects, and I hope my research will enable others to understand and appreciate objects like this one. To speak the name of the Pharaoh is to perpetuate his eternal existence – I think in this case, we have certainly succeeded!