Heart-scarab of Paratjia

The article is the first complete publication of an object from the Berlin Egyptian Museum, now on loan to the Archaeological Museum in Poznań as part of the exhibition ‘Death and Life in Ancient Egypt’. The heart-scarab of one Paratjia comes from the former Passalacqua collection and reportedly was found at Thebes on the breast of a mummy. Described and analysed are its form and decoration, compared to known parallels. The text, inscribed on the flat bottom of the scarab, is given in hieroglyphs, transliteration and translation, and commented. The object has a distinctive and unique form of a sphinx-scarab, with human head and hands, placed on an aegis in form of a falcon-collar. Its workmanship is of high quality, details of iconography are precisely executed. The name of the owner, otherwise unknown, reflects a pattern suggesting its foreign provenance. The object is compared to other human-headed scarabs dated mostly to the Second Intermediate Period through the New Kingdom. Parallels found at Nubian cemeteries might confirm a ‘southern’ connection. An object in Boston, of a similar material and workmanship, is a closest parallel to the scarab of Paratjia. However, a fairly common name of its female owner, Nebet, cannot help in identifying the owner of the Berlin scarab. The heart-scarab of Paratjia may be dated to the Eighteenth or Nineteenth Dynasty. The text of the Chapter 30B of the Book of the Dead, inscribed on the bottom of the scarab, bears several interesting features, including shortened writings at its end.