WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · jewelry
Scarab with Crowns and Cobras Design
Description
<p>This steatite scarab has a flat underside with a vertically and horizontally arranged design with the combination of two lower Egyptian crowns and four cobras with raised upper bodies on baskets. The design of the back is detailed with finely incised lines and regular line flow. The proportions of the top are well balanced. The piece is simply made with good workmanship. The scarab functioned as an amulet with kingship connotations. The amulet refers to all-inclusive divine protection, royal power, and perfection. The red crown symbolizes not only the royal aspect but also magical power, and strengthens the protective function of the amulet. The scarab originally would have been mounted or threaded.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.33' rel='external'>Scarab with Crowns and Cobras Design</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-like object with a recessed design filled by a blue-green glaze, showing symmetrical crown-and-serpent motifs in a central field.
The image shows a rounded-oval, likely scarab-shaped artifact with a light body and a mottled blue-green glazed surface concentrated along the incised lines. The central decoration appears in darkened recesses and includes multiple elements: on the upper area there are two curved, crown-like forms (or rosetted/arched elements) flanking a central cluster; across the middle and lower field are additional serpentine/cobra-like shapes and coiled/looped forms arranged symmetrically. The outlines of the motifs are clear as incised or molded ridges, while smaller internal details are harder to read due to wear and oxidation. No readable inscription is visible in Greek, Coptic, or Arabic; any hieroglyphs are not clearly distinct from the decorative crown/cobra pattern. The overall surface is uneven with oxidation and possible chips along the edges, suggesting wear but not severe fragmentation.
decorative
unknown (scarab/amulet style could be Late Period to Ptolemaic, but not determinable from this image)
good
Materials
light brown steatite (or similar light stone)blue-green glaze (in recesses/over surface)
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
[Inscription] Combination of two lower Egyptian crowns, four cobras with raised upper body on baskets, and two nfr-signs (""perfection"").
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 42.33 tier-2
- Walters-id 16939 tier-2
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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.