Engraved Scarab with Running Centaur (Main View, front oblique)

A centaur, part-man, part-horse, brandishes a branch while running to the right, his head turned back to the left. Seemingly kneeling with one knee down, his pose is actually an artistic convention that signified fast motion in Archaic Greek art. This centaur also has human front legs rather than the more usual equine ones, another characteristic of Archaic art. Centaurs in Greek myth are typically represented as wild, uncivilized creatures, and are often shown fighting, indicated here by the branch, which he wields as a weapon.

Greek gem carving changed dramatically in form, materials, and technique in the-mid 500s B.C. One of these changes was the introduction of the scarab, with its back carved like a beetle and its flat surface an intaglio. They were usually pierced and worn either as a pendant or attached to a metal hoop and worn as a ring, with the beetle side facing out and the intaglio surface resting against the finger. When serving as a seal, the ring was removed, the scarab swiveled, and the intaglio design was pressed into soft clay or wax to identify and secure property.

The scarab form originally derived from Egypt, where it had been used for seals and amulets for centuries. Certain features of Greek scarabs, however, such as the form of the beetle and the hatching around the intaglio motif, show the influence of Phoenician models, which the Greeks probably saw on Cyprus. The use of rock crystal for a scarab is unusual. Most gems carved from rock crystal took the simpler scaraboid form, since the clear stone made the detailed carving of the beetle hard to see.