Historically the most valuable class is of those which bear royal names, ranging from Senusret I. of the XIIth Dynasty to the end of the XXVIth Dynasty. Certain great kings are com memorated on scarabs of periods long subsequent to them. Thus Cheops (Khufu), of the IVth Dynasty, appears on examples of the latest Pharaonic age, scarabs having been unknown in his time, and Tuthmosis III. is found at all times after the XVIIIth Dynasty. But after the XIIth Dynasty the royal names are of con temporary workmanship, and the differences of style and pattern make it possible to group unknown kings with those who are known historically; the names of the Hyksos kings have been principally recovered from col lections of scarab-seals. Scarab shaped seals are traceable as far back as about the VIth Dynasty. They became abundant under the XIIth and continued until almost the end of the native rule. As seals they took the place of the earlier cylinders and "but ton-seals." Considering the life history of the scarabaeus and its meaning as a hieroglyph, it may well be that the scarab impressing the clay had a symbolic signifi cance; however that may be, the oval form was well adapted for seal-stones and for the bezels of finger rings. In this situation the scarabs were often mounted with a rim of gold or silver round the edge. Rings of stone, glass or metal, with engraved bezels of the same material, and eventually Greek gem rings, gradually displaced them.
A series of exceptionally large scarabs was engraved in the reign of Amenophis III., c. 1450 B.C., all being inscribed with his name together with that of Queen Tiye and her parentage. At present five varieties are known. The simplest commemorates his queen and the north and south limits of his empire; another dated in the first year, a great battue of wild cattle; the third, the arrival of the princess Gilukhipa of Mitanni in the tenth year ; the fourth (many specimens), the number of lions slain by the king down to his tenth year; the last, the cutting of the lake of Zarukhe in the eleventh year.
Egyptian scarabs were carried by trade to most of the islands and shores of the eastern Mediterranean and to Mesopotamia.
The Greeks, especially in their Egyptian colony of Naucratis (q.v.), imitated them in soft paste. The finest Etruscan gems of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. are in the form of scarabs, perhaps suggested by the Egyptian. The forgers of antiquities have carried on a brisk trade in scarabs for more than a century.
See P. E. Newberry, Scarabs (London, 1906) ; Hall, Catalogue of Scarabs, British Museum, i. (1913) ; Petrie, Scarabs; also art. GEM, especially for later scarabaeoid gems. (F. LL. G.; H. R. H.)