Wild bull hunt scarab of Amenhotep III
General Information

Large commemorative scarabs are characteristic of Amenhotep III's reign. This particular scarab is one of only five known examples that record a royal bull hunt undertaken in year 2. More than just a pastime, the king's success as a hunter symbolized the triumph of royal order over the forces of nature and chaos.

Number 1984.36
Storing Place The Cleveland Museum of Art - Cleveland - United States of America
Material Steatite
Type Scarab
Type of Script Hieroglyphic
Width 2.46 cm
Height 6.65 cm
Historical Period The Eighteenth Dynasty – The New Kingdom
General Comments

About 200 scarabs are found, and all are inscribed with lengthy texts on their undersides. The texts record important events in the life of the king and queen.

Inscriptions on the Monument
Translation

In the second year of the reign of His Majesty, the Living Horus, the mighty Bull, diademed with Maat (i.e. Truth), the [e]stablisher of Laws, the Pacifier of the Two Lands (i.e. Upper and Lower Egypt), Mighty one in arm (or, thigh), smiter of the Nomads, the son of Ra, Amenhetep, Governor of Thebes, giver of life (the King's Woman, the Great One, [being] Ti, living one like Ra, a marvellous thing took place through His Majesty. One came bringing a report to His Majesty, saying: "The Wild cattle are in the hilly ground of the district of Shetep." (Wadi Natron) His Majesty set out by boat and sailed down the river in the royal barge called Kha-em-Maat. During the night. And having made a successful journey he arrived safely in the district of Shetep early the following morning. His Majesty mounted his horse and rode off with all his bowmen following him, and the head men, and all the captains of the bowmen, were commanded to keep a strict watch on the wild cattle, and all the children of the neighbourhood to do the same. And His Majesty gave orders for all the wild cattle to be driven into a stockaded enclosure with a ditch (?) round about it. His Majesty commanded a counting of all the wild cattle to be made, and their total number was 170. The number of the wild cattle which His Majesty hunted and slew on this day was 56 head. His Majesty remained idle for four days in order to allow his horses to recover their fieriness. Then His Majesty mounted a horse, and Fraser translated this line literally from what's visible on the scarab, "His Majesty captured 20 ..... cattle ....." The total number of the wild cattle [slain by him] was 96 head.

Scientific Publishing

E. A. Wallis Budge, The Dwellers on the Nile, (London, 1926)
E. A. Wallis Budge, Tutankhamen: Amenism, Atenism and Egyptian Monotheism, (New York, 1923), pl. VI
J. Fletcher, Chronicle of a Pharaoh The Intimate Life of Amenhotep III, (Oxford, New York, 2000).