This trinket was picked up for me in the summer of 1998 by my friend Chad while he was over in India for an MIT-India program. It’s actually an abstract representation of Ganesh, the elephant god. Ganesh is the younger son of Shiva and Parvati according to Hindu mythology. It’s made from teak, with a red lacquer coating.

This cat on a scarab was picked up for me by my friend Youssef while he was in Egypt during the summer of 1998. The cat may represent Bastet, the Cat-headed goddess of love, sex and fertility. Like the ferocious war goddess Sekhmet, Bastet was originally a lioness deity, but from c.900 BC she began to be represented as a cat, perhaps because of her gentler nature. 

The scarab probably represents Khepry, a divine scarab beetle which was the dawn manifestation of the sun god. Khepry is typically represented pushing the sun up into the sky, an image derived from the scarab rolling a ball of dung. To the Egyptians, the scarab beetle was a symbol of rebirth, regeneration and transformation. I think the carving’s made from black basalt, like the Rosetta Stone.