Rhinoceros beetle box

Unknown

664–30 B.C. · Cupreous metal · Egyptian Art

This rather sinister horned creature seems to represent the rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes nascicarnis, which is native to the Mediterranean region. The small bronze sarcophagus that it guards once held a beetle mummy, though not necessarily of the same species. In embalming beetles, as in all animal mummification, the Egyptians of the Late Period and Ptolemaic and Roman times gave tangible form to their belief that all animals, large and small were incarnations of the divine.

Artist

Unknown

Date

664–30 B.C.

Medium

Cupreous metal

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1926