In Ancient Egypt the scarab—sacred emblem of the Creator-Sungod Khepti— was used throughout the ages as an amulet and as a seal. A third, and entirely new use came into existence in the XVIIIth Dynasty, the elliptical base of these scarabs now being inscribed with a text containing either an allusion to a historical fact or a laudation of the king.
Amenhotep III, the ninth pharaoh of this dynasty, issued besides these small commemorative scarabs, specimens of a larger size bearing similar texts. He also issued a considerable number of large scarabs with long inscriptions describing events that were important to him. They are called ‘large commemorative scarabs’ and specimens of them have been found not only in Egypt but also in Syria, Palestine, and the Sudan. The scarabs are commonly looked upon as a kind of commemorative medal. Of the ‘large commemorative scarabs’ five different series occur, distinguished by five different texts. 
These texts describe the wild bull-hunt in year 2, the lion hunt in the first ten years, the arrival of the Mitannian ptincess Gilukhepa in regnal year 10, and the digging of an artificial lake in the eleventh year of the king’s reign. The fifth series of these scarabs is the only one that bears no date. Its text gives, besides the full titulary of the pharaoh and that of the Great Royal Wife Tiyi as on all other scarabs, the names of the queen’s parents and the boundaries of the empire. This undated series must in all probability have been issued in year 1 or early in year 2 of the reign of the pharaoh. To the description of the scarabs also a summary is added of those scarabs that had been published earlier but sight of which was lost since. 
In the present volume Mrs Blankenberg-van Delden has collected about two hundred specimens of these exceptional scarabs, brought together from public and private collections all over the world. It is the great merit of this book that it provides as complete as possible a collection,presenting photographs, descriptionsand bibliographies of each of the scarabs, the whole preceded by a general introduction.