WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · jewelry
Scarab with Cat and Title of Shepenwepet
Description
<p>This scaraboid faience amulet is inscribed on the bottom with the name and title of the divine consort Shepenwepet. The top is carved with the three-dimensional representation of a cat facing the right with the head turned to the front. The workmanship is a little rough, but detailed. This piece functioned as an individualized amulet of the Divine Consort Shepenwepet II, and was originally mounted or threaded. The image of a cat with kittens conveys the idea of fertility, renewal, and protection, and the name of Shepenwepet the individualization. The amulet should secure the divine status, royal authority of the "Divine Consort," as well as her presence and renewal. It is possible that the amulet was created for the personal use of Shepenwepet, but it is also likely that it was given to a private person to guarantee her patronage. The identification of the lying animal as a cat is possible by posture, content and comparision, but the round shapes of the ears are a litttle uncommon and seem more canine. Nevertheless, the attitude of the animal, and the context make identification as cat most likely.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.48' rel='external'>Scarab with Cat and Title of Shepenwepet</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.
A round, oval scarab-shaped amulet fragment rendered in light-colored faience with areas of green-blue glaze, bearing a blackened band-like motif across the center and a raised figure/feature on the right.
The object appears as a small, oval scarab amulet face with a weathered, light beige/gray body. The surface shows mottling consistent with surviving faience glaze: green-blue/green patches occur along the central band and toward the lower-left and upper-right areas. A prominent dark (blackened) horizontal band runs across the midsection; a lighter green line sits above it in places, suggesting decorative edging. On the right side there is a raised circular/rounded form resembling part of an engraved or modeled scarab motif (possibly a head/eye or another carved element), though the finer carving is too worn/blurred to confidently identify the full scene or text. No clearly legible hieroglyphs, cartouches, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text are visible at this resolution. No clear animal (cat) figure is distinguishable in the worn image beyond general relief/ornamentation, so the specific “cat and title of Shepenwepet” aspect cannot be confirmed visually from this image alone.
decorative
unknown
poor
Deities
unknown
Royals
Shepenwepet (only per catalogue; not legible in image)
Materials
light beige faiencegreen-blue glazeblack pigment/oxidation (on central band)
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
[Translation] Name with cartouche and titles of the Divine Consort of Amun: Shepenwepet: Divine consort, divine worshipper: / Shep-en-wepet.
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 42.48 tier-2
- Walters-id 24458 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.