Engraved Scaraboid with Seashell (Front)

This scaraboid gem is engraved with a murex shell. The murex snail was used in antiquity for the production of ‘Tyrian purple’, a costly and prestigious purple-red dye first produced by the Phoenicians in the second millennium B.C. that was highly-prized across the Mediterranean. Its depiction on a gem signals the stone’s comparable status as a luxury good.

A scaraboid is a simplified scarab, with a plain curved back and an intaglio design decorating the flat underside. The form gradually replaced the scarab in Greece in the 400s B.C. Like scarabs, they were typically pierced and worn either as a ring or pendant. When attached to a metal hoop and worn as a ring, the curved side faced out and the intaglio surface rested against the finger. When needed as a seal, the ring was removed, the gem swiveled, and the intaglio design was pressed into soft clay or wax to identify and secure property.