Scarab Workshops at Tell el Dab'a
Christa Mlinar

More than 250 scarabs have been found in the area A/II and F/I in Tell el-Dab'a, the well stratified site in the Eastern Nile Delta. Most belonging to tombs of all strata from the 13th dynasty to the end of the Hyksostime. Investigations of these scarabs give us a better idea of chronology as well as typology.

Seriations of all the features, like head, back, legs and motif suggested that there were special scarab-workshops at Tell el-Dab'a, covering the 13th tol the late 15^th dynasty. A comparison of the features with the scarabs of Syria, Palestine and Nubia clearly shows that there are differences in the way head, back and legs are combined. It is possible to find different types at different sites.

For Tell el-Dab'a it can be said that in the early 13^th dynasty, there was an Egyptian type, not only made at Tell el-Dab'a but also at other Egyptian sites. I call it Type I not as such being typical of Tell el-Dab'a work.

Type II and III are definitely made at Tell el-Dab'a. Although both of these types look quite different, they belong to one period, namely the 13^th dynasty (excluding the early 13^th dynasty), to one workshop and sometimes even to one seal-cutter.

At the beginning of the Hyksostime, during Str. E/2, new types appear, Type IV a-c. A new workshop superseded the 13^th dynasty workshop, there being no continuity between the two workshops. There is evidence of an increase in Canaanite motifs.

Type V is a special, naturalistic type. This type appears in the mid 15^th dynasty.

Type VI is divided into a and b. Type VIa belongs to the second half of the 15^th dynasty. Type VIb is found only in the late Hyksostime (1590-1530 B.C.), including a scarab of the chancellor Har and a hitherto now unknown Hyksos king called Shenshek.

This investigation shows that it will also be possible to define workshops on other sites, especially in Palestine, making it easier to distinguish locally made scarabs from the imported variety.