This article was first published in Judea and Samaria Research Studies 33, no. 2 (2024).
Recent excavations conducted from 2017 to 2023 at Shiloh (Khirbet es-Seilūn) yielded thirteen Egyptian-style scarabs. Most of the scarabs are contemporary with the Middle Bronze Age IIB–Middle Bronze Age IIC (=MB III) in Canaan, three of which we examine here. They differ from the rest of the corpus: Only Scarab 1 dates to Egypt’s New Kingdom; only Scarab 2 bears a hieroglyphic reference to Upper Egypt; and only Scarab 3 displays the “anra” (ʾnrʾ) composition. The article analyzes these three scarabs, the context of their discovery, their hieroglyphic inscriptions (interpreted based on Gardiner’s sign list), and their typology. These factors offer insights into the scarabs’ periods of production and use. The discussion includes known parallels from clean archaeological contexts. The remaining ten scarabs will be the subject of future publications....
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