WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · jewelry
Scarab with Royal Title and Name of Tjetet (?)
Description
<p>This steatite scarab is glazed and inscribed on the bottom with the "two royal aspects" title and "Tjetet," possibly a royal name. The top has a medium high back and deeply incised details with almost regular line flow and good workmanship. The piece is simply made. The "two royal aspects" title does not contain a known royal name. Either one can interpret the "Tjetet" as a miswriting, or as an offering table which can lead to a reading of "Belonging to the offering table of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt." This interpretation is most likely, yet one should not neglect the possibility that "Tjetet" is the name of an unknown king. This scarab functioned as an amulet with kingship connotations, and was originally mounted or threaded. It is possible that the amulet should assure the participation in the royal rituals, especially in the food supply, and should also guarantee the supply for its private owner. The undercutting of the legs, the clear partition of the plates by deep incised lines, and the single partition lines on the back are known for scarabs of the Third Intermediate Period.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.59' rel='external'>Scarab with Royal Title and Name of Tjetet (?)</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
An oval scarab amulet with a turquoise-green glazed surface, showing incised hieroglyph-like royal-title elements on the back.
The image shows a small, oval scarab (probably a back/bull-side is photographed) with a light beige body and a turquoise-green glaze. The interior surface is mostly flat and the decoration consists of dark brown/black incised marks filled with mineral staining. At the top-center there appear to be wedge-like strokes and a vertical arrangement of signs, while the middle includes a larger elongated, oval/rectangular incised area. The lower section shows two rounded marks and a small central notch-like form, consistent with stylized hieroglyphic placement but not readable with certainty from this resolution. No cartouche border is clearly discernible, and no definite royal name like “Tjetet” can be confirmed visually.
decorative
unknown
good
Materials
light beige steatite (body)turquoise/green-blue glaze
Signs
Unclear incised hieroglyphic signs (possibly royal-title elements) ×3
Visible text
"Incised, stained hieroglyph-like signs; exact reading unclear (no legible cartouche/name confirmed)."
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
[Translation] The term tt.t following the state ruler title does not contain a known royal name: King of Upper- and Lower Egypt Tjetet (?)
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 42.59 tier-2
- Walters-id 21999 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.