Egyptian seals and artifacts represent somewhat of a deviation from the central focus of the Van Egmond collection, but they do represent an important body of glyptic art that developed over a similar timeline as those Near Eastern pieces shown in this catalog. The select group of pieces featured here are intended to provide a small window into this vast realm of collecting and scholarship. They are intended to highlight the many variations in imagery, scripts, materials and use of seals across ancient cultures.
“Sealing technology first appears in Egypt around 3600 BCE during the Naqada II period of the Predynastic. Thereafter, the use of seals undergoes a lengthy evolution, responding to the shifting structure of the country’s political system, as well as changes in cultural, religious, and artistic traditions that spanned some three millennia.” i
“Uses of seals in ancient Egypt were various and diverse but as in other civilizations, marking for proving ownership or security were common.
“The Egyptians did not have locks and keys. Instead, they would secure a chest or other container with a piece of knotted cord. A lump of clay was put over the knot and a seal was pressed into the clay. The cord would have to be cut, or the seal broken in order to open the container and remove the contents.” ii
Scarabs were certainly used as charms or amulets, worn as personal decorations and jewelry but the vast quantity of impressions that have survived indicate that their primary ongoing purpose was for making impressions to sign, seal or otherwise identify an action of the seal’s holder.
For ancient Egyptians, vast numbers of seals and amulets in the form of the scarab have survived. “The Egyptian Scarabs were, for their ancient possessors, mainly amulets with powerful images or spells. To the moderns, the Scarab seals are objects of interest, either as emblems of Egyptian religion or specimens of the Egyptian art, while to the archaeologist and historian they are often useful as valuable evidences of the past.” iii
“The Egyptians saw the Egyptian scarab (Scarabaeus sacer) as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. The beetle was associated closely with the sun god because scarabs roll large balls of dung in which to lay their eggs, a behavior that the Egyptians thought resembled the progression of the sun through the sky from east to west. Its young were hatched from this ball, and this event was seen as an act of spontaneous self-creation, giving the beetle an even stronger association with the sun god’s creative force. The connection between the beetle and the sun was so close that the young sun god was thought to be reborn in the form of a winged scarab beetle every morning at sunrise. As this young sun god, known as Khepri, rose in the sky, he brought light and life to the land.” ii
The scarab had great significance in life and especially in a funerary context. “Since the sun was believed to die each night and reborn each morning as a beetle, the scarab took on significant regenerative powers. The deceased needed to harness these powers to be reborn in the afterlife – in the same way, the sun was reborn each morning.” iv
Seals and inscribed amulets in other forms exist but in smaller numbers. The collection includes a number of such seals in plaque, rectangle and other forms.
