Signet ring, Electrum found on Sai Island (Pharaonic Cemetery), New Kingdom. 18th Dynasty.

 

Finger-ring made of a single piece of electrum (gold mixed with silver), with an ivory scaraboid set into it. The flat side of this scaraboid bears a design representing a palm tree topped with a terminal in the form of two spiral palm leaves. The tree is flanked by two representations of mirrors. In hieroglyphic writing the mirror is not only used as a pictogram to evoke the object itself, but also to represent a prophylactic symbol, for example life, which is read ankh, one of the most common amulets or written symbols in Egyptian civilization. This is a good example of the constant play with words and their meanings which is characteristic of the hieroglyphic system, being at the same time pictographic, syllabic and alphabetic. More over, it is interesting to observe that the handles of mirrors were often made in the form of a palm-tree's trunk.

 

This finger-ring was discovered in situ, under the pelvis, when removing the skeleton of an aged man whose burial was undisturbed. In burials of this period people were laid on their backs, with their arms slightly flexed and their hands crossed over the pubis. This explains why rings, scarabs worn as rings, and bracelets are generally found between the thighs. This type of ring with a signet was rather uncommon and worn only by important people. The design of its inset is also uncommon. Only one scarab, found in an early 18th-Dynasty tomb at Esna, shows a design approximately similar.
 

A Human-headed, heart scarab in dark green hard stone was also found in the same burial. They were found in a subsidiary room of a tomb on Sai Island, on the chest of an aged man whose funerary equipment included an inscribed shabti bearing his name, a little scarab with royal iconography and a this ring. Its position, higher than the associated bones, suggests that the amulet was placed above the coffin and not inside, as was usually the case.