Egyptian antiquities, scarabs : an introduction to the study of Egyptian seals and signet rings.

  • Newberry, Percy E. (Percy Edward), 1869-1949.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Egyptian antiquities, scarabs : an introduction to the study of Egyptian seals and signet rings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the circumference of the stick or reed, or upon the surface of the stone or pebble, by the owner, and appropriated to himself as his own peculiar mark. Put as these markings or devices would have had little weight with a determined thief, we can hardly doubt that, in Babylonia at any rate, they became early imbued with a magical signification : so that their real power would be moral rather than physical. The reasoning of the lawyers of the Middle Ages regarding the sealing of contracts was that a seal attracts and excites caution in illiterate persons, and thereby operates as a security against fraud.1 The simple scratchings that we find on so many of the early Egyptian pots were the possessors’ marks ; indeed, King contends that “this instinct of possession extending itself to the assumption of exclusive owner- ship in certain configurations of lines, or rude delinea- tions of natural objects, is a universal impulse of man’s nature, and one found existing amongst all savage nations when first discovered, wheresoever the faintest trace of social life and polity have begun to develop themselves.” A great number of these signs Professor Petrie has preserved in his various records of explora- tions. (Cf his Naqada, p. 44.) Thus the Red Indian has besides the tribal mark, that of the individual (his special totem), wherewith to identify his own property, or the game he may kill. The South Sea Islander carries the tattooed pattern that distinguishes his particular family, imprinted upon his own skin, and also draws the same upon his credentials like a regular coat of arms. It is therefore in these markings firstly scratched on pots, and next on rude seals, that we