Bonner, SMA – PDF, 236.

on to seven omegas. It may be observed that in this specimen and some others of the group the modius of Sarapis has been omitted to make room for the scarab over his head.

Similar in design is a haematite in my collection (D. 355). A part of the right side of the stone has been broken away, and unfortunately some previous owner restored an approximately elliptical contour by grinding off the corners at top and bottom. One new feature appears on the obverse, an uncertain object in the field above the outstretched right hand of Sarapis. It triangular, with a straight projection below and a much shorter projection with two crossbars at the apex of the triangle. It may be an incense burner.²⁶ The mummy wears an elaborate crown, apparently intended for the atef, and the serpent's human head has an ellipsoid ornament over it. Other differences are in the inscriptions, ablanathan above, Iao between the hand of Sarapis and the scorpion, and a few letters and characters in the left lower field. The greater part of an inscription outside the serpent has worn away or has been ground off. The few letters that remain could be a part of the Iaeo palindrome.

On the reverse the figure of Harpocrates on the lotus has lost the face, right arm, and legs. A crescent moon behind was doubtless balanced by a star in front. The outer inscription, βαλακαμσθομβλη, is the latter part of a formula often associated with Harpocrates. The inner, ιν τω φορυν, to be filled out as [δός χάρ]ιν τῷ φορ‹ο›ῦν[τι], a common petition.

The same combination of an elaborately enthroned Sarapis on the obverse and Harpocrates on the reverse occurs on two amulets belonging to the British Museum. No. 56526, only a little smaller than the fine Brummer gem, is, like it, a bloodstone. The differences are slight. The outer inscription is the Iaeo palindrome as on the Brummer gem; within the ouroboros the only inscription consists of the seven vowels. The Harpocrates on the other side is encircled with a series of nineteen signs, a few of which are ordinary Greek letters, the rest characters or else letters of a cryptographic alphabet. No. 56217, a damaged haematite, also shows no variations of importance in the Sarapis design, which seems to be the reverse type in this instance. Only a few letters remain of the outer inscription; the inner is an arrangement of the vowels βοτρυδόν, that is, like a bunch of grapes or an inverted triangle. The other side presents a new feature. In front of Harpocrates, at a lower level, a helmeted warrior leads a draped figure (Ares and Aphrodite?). Behind Harpocrates there was another person, but the figure is almost all broken away. The inscriptions included the palindrome ablanathanalba, Arroriphrasis, the name of Aphrodite in magic, and bainchoooch (the last four letters).

The obverse of a green jasper in the Metropolitan Museum (D. 356) again differs in no essential point from the design of the Brummer stone.

²⁶ But if so, it resembles a Neo-Babylonian form of incense burner more than any Egyptian type known to me; see No. 315, fig. 11 (p. 117) and Pl. 32 in H. H. von der Osten, Ancient Oriental Seals in the Collection of Edward T. Newell.

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