A Bronze/Iron-Age Scarab in a Middle Islamic Context: The Use of Ancient Objects in Later Periods

Excavations at Horvat Tevet in the Jezreel Valley exposed a cemetery dated to the Middle Islamic period. One skeleton was accompanied by a scarab bearing the throne name of Thutmose III, a populär motif decorating scarabs since the New Kingdom in Egypt. While scarabs are often found in burials that date to the Bronze and Iron Ages, the deposition of a scarab in later burials is also known. This Middle Islamic burial marks the latest attestation of this phenomenon. This article presents the burial context, the findspot of the scarab near the neck of the skeleton suggesting its use as part of a necklace, and the scarab itself. The subsequent discussion explores the appropriation and use of ancient objects in the past. Despite the resemblance to the use of scarabs found in Bronze and Iron Age contexts as Ornaments, the thousands of years separating the production and final use of this scarab raises doubts about whether its last owners possessed the knowledge of its original function or the significance of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. This case allows us to explore the affordances of scarabs, emphasizing their role as an active agent of the past and how they induced people to re-use them over time.