Advanced Search 
Scarab with the giant Meas throwing a stone
Italic, Etruscan
Classical Period
late 5th–early 4th century B.C.
Medium/Technique
Carnelian
Dimensions
Length: 15 mm (9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number98.733
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Scarabs and scaraboids
DescriptionDeep, almost opaque, brownish red carnelian. Scarab with a flat, oval base engraved in intaglio; pierced lengthwise. Giant from ¾ back about to throw a large stone held in his left hand. He holds a shield and some drapery over his right arm. A spear pierces his leg. Rocky ground. Etruscan inscription counterclockwise around his back. Hatched border. Back carved as a beetle with a hatched line separating the thorax and the elytra, which are divided by a single line. Detailed, spined legs. Plinth decorated with a tongue pattern. Milky patches over the surface.
InscriptionsThe inscription reads as follows: MEAS (Etruscan)
ProvenanceBy 1897, Michal Tyszkiewicz (b. 1828 - d. 1897), Rome; June 8 - 10, 1898, posthumous Tyszkiewicz sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 258 (bought in Naples); 1898, Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), Rome and London; 1898, sold by Warren to the MFA for $69,618.13 [see note]. (Accession Date: September 20, 1898)
Note: this is the total price for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.
Note: this is the total price for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.