Anra scarab

They were typically carved or moulded in the form of a scarab beetle (usually identified as Scarabaeus sacer) with varying degrees of naturalism but usually at least indicating the head, wing case and legs but with a flat base.

Some scholars consider the anra scarabs were used only for its amuletic qualities, and that the seals found in Palestine were an adapted Canaanite form of an Egyptian funerary custom, transmitted through Asiatics living in the Nile Delta.

[7]: 11 Murray argued that the skill and subsequent cost of producing anra scarabs would not have been spent haphazardly on ignorant copies of misunderstood inscriptions, and must have been important and relayed meaning to the wearer.

[16] Daphna Ben-Tor argues that the anra sequence did not have a specific meaning, but was rather treated as a generic group of good luck symbols with Egyptian prestige value.

Notable sites include: Ras Shamra, Byblos, Beth-shan, Pella, Memphis, Shechem, Gezer, Shiloh, Amman, Gerar, Tell El-Dab'a, Esna, Debeira, Mirgissa, Jericho and Rishon.

[9] In Egypt and Nubia, the anra scarabs that have been found stay closer to the original three sign sequence without the supplementary Egyptian iconography more prevalent in the Levant.