[Ancientartifacts] Scarab problem

All,

I have two scarabs that need cleaning (badly).

One is a carnelian scarab still on its bronze ring. It is really a nice piece but one can not see the true color of the carnelian. It has a whitish haze like hard water deposits but shinning. The carnelian scarab is frozen in place (will not move/spin) and I am fearful it would break from the ring if I did much to it.

The other is a very unique scarab (actually a scaraboid) with glyphs that I am still researching to discover their meaning (none of my eight books on scarabs has anything like them). It has a white powdery substance on it like plaster. I removed some of this substance around the holes with a dental pick but I am afraid to proceed any further. This scarab I know for sure is NOT steatite and I think it is probably faience - it has that medium solid blue color.

I remember a discussion in the group about putting faience shabties in distilled water but as I remember that was not to clean them but for salt problems?

Does anybody have any ideas?

Teresa Day-Smith __._,_.___

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