Wild Bull Hunt Scarab of Amenhotep III (c. 1391–1353 BCE): Art, History and Details

Wild Bull Hunt Scarab of Amenhotep III (c. 1391–1353 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Large commemorative scarabs are characteristic of Amenhotep III’s reign. About 200 are known, and all are inscribed with texts on their undersides, recording significant events in the life of the king and queen. This particular scarab is one of only 5 known examples that describe a royal bull hunt undertaken in his second year of rule, in which the king killed 96 bulls. More than just a pastime, the king’s success as a hunter symbolized the triumph of royal order over the forces of nature and chaos.

Object facts

• Title: Wild Bull Hunt Scarab of Amenhotep III
• Date: c. 1391–1353 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III (1390–1352 BCE)
• Type: Scarabs
• Technique: steatite
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.5 x 6.6 x 2.5 cm (4 1/8 x 2 5/8 x 1 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - New Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1984.36

A detail from the museum

The variation in tone appears to be related to inclusions and pigmentation in the stone.

Collection credit

Gift of Betty and Max Ratner

Further reading listed by the museum

• Eggebrecht, Arne, and Joachim Boessneck. Das Alte Ägypten: 3000 Jahre Geschichte und Kultur des Pharaonenreiches. München: C. Bertelsmann, 1984.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1984.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 2 (April 1985).
• Kozloff, Arielle P., Betsy Morrell Bryan, Lawrence Michael Berman, and Elisabeth Delange. Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1992.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.