Detail

Dafna Filsteiner found a 3,500-year-old ancient Egyptian amulet during a walk in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. The find, announced in a statement by the Israel Antiquities Authority on December 4, is a small scarab-shaped stone with scorpions carved on it. 24 Kanal writes that, according to scientists, the stone testifies to ancient Egyptian influence on the territory of modern Israel.

I showed it to my mother and she said it was an ordinary stone or bead. But then I saw the ornament and stubbornly insisted there was more to it, so we looked it up online. There they saw more petroglyphs similar to the one we found. We knew this was something special and immediately called the Antiquities Office.
Daphna Filsteiner tells reporters.

The amulet depicts two scorpions placed head to tail, the hieroglyph “nefer” and a motif resembling a royal scepter. According to Bronze Age expert Yitzhak Paz of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who worked on the amulet, the scorpions represent the Egyptian goddess Serket, whose divine authority included the protection of pregnant women, and “nefer” means “good” or “chosen.”

Daphne Filsteiner holds the amulet she found / Photo: Emil Alajem, Israel Antiquities Authority

Paz attributes the amulet about 3500 yearsthat is, it was built during the New Kingdom in Egypt, when the pharaoh’s power spread over parts of modern Israel.

Egyptians considered scarab beetles sacred, and their laying of eggs in dung balls symbolized new life. The Egyptian word for this sacred insect, scarab, comes from a verb meaning “to create” or “to be created.”

Scarabs are indeed indigenous to Egypt, but their widespread distribution also extended well beyond Egypt. It may have been dropped or deliberately buried by an important and authoritative person passing through the area. Since the find was discovered on the surface, it is difficult to know its full context.
– explains the scientist.

The artifact was found near Tel Qana, an archaeological site with ruins dating back to the Early Bronze Age. So it might have something to do with this place.

The Israel Antiquities Authority awarded Filsteiner and his family a certificate of honor for conscientious citizenship, presumably because they handed over the artifact rather than hiding it. The public will be able to view the scarab on display at the Jay and Gina Schottenstein National Israeli Archaeological Campus.