1960.628: Scaraboid Seal: Hawks

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1960.628

Title

Scaraboid Seal: Hawks

Classification

Seals

Work Type

seal

Date

c. 730-700 BCE

Culture

Phoenician

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/290477

Physical Descriptions

Medium

steatite, glazed

Dimensions

L. 3.9 cm (1 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

From a Geometric Period tomb south of Athens (found inside bowl 1960.281).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson

Accession Year

1960

Object Number

1960.628

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This scaraboid seal is of the “acorn” type. One side shows a frontal, bearded man with full cheeks, a thin and rectangular mouth, a triangular nose, and incised hemispherical eyes. The face has a heavy brow, and wears a headpiece composed from stylized and gridded squares, typical of the acorn variety. The opposite side is flat and carved intaglio with Egyptian imagery, including a winged khepher beetle, two falcons with extended wings, and two ma’at feathers. The amulet was pierced longitudinally and was meant to be worn.

This type of acorn amulet was rare in Greece in the 8th century, with only a few surviving examples in Greece (cf. Delphi inv. no. 31231), but became more common in the following century in faience. While the carving is semi-haphazard on the face, more attention was given to the intaglio carving, with deep and precise lines. This seal combines artistic iconographies and practices from several cultural regions surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean, including adapted Egyptian motifs of the scarab beetle, the ma’at feathers, and the falcons. The images mimic hieroglyphics, although they do not form real words. The adaptation of Egyptian iconography is common in Phoenician art, which frequently borrows features from multicultural styles. The shape of the acorn amulet is typical of Phoenician production, although the style of the bearded face is more common to the region of Palestine (cf. seals from Acco). Its reported find-context in an Athenian grave with Greek pottery from the late Geometric period also includes the Greek traditions in the object’s biography. This small object invites us to consider the interconnected nature of life and the movement of peoples and goods, even in a time period as early as the 8th century BCE. Its hybrid style may express an intersectional identity of its owner.

This amulet is said to have been found in a tomb, a placement which would relate to its protective function. While scarab seals were seen as an exotic import in Greece and given more religious functions, they were more commonly associated with administration in the Levant and Egypt. In Egypt, the amulet is also connected with regeneration and the cycle of life and death.

Publication History

• David Moore Robinson, "The Robinson Collection of Greek Gems, Seals, Rings, and Earrings", Hesperia Supplements (1949), Vol. 8, 305-323, 475-480, p. 310-311, no. 7, pl. 40.7.
• Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), pp. 41-42, no. 374
• Susan Langdon, ed., From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer, exh. cat., University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO, 1993), p. 188-90, no. 73.

Exhibition History

• The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961
• From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer, Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, 10/09/1993 - 12/05/1993

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