Ancient Scarab Beetle
“It sees a light that our eyes don’t see, brings good luck and wealth, invalidates envy; you can cruise around it seven times to have children and six times for marriage !! “In the captivating world of ancient Egypt, the scarab beetle held profound significance. It is known for its unique appearance and symbolic representation; the scarab was pivotal in Egyptian culture. This article will explore the rich history and symbolism associated with scarabs, exploring their meaning, significance, and enduring legacy.
Do Egyptian Scarabs Still Exist?
The sayings are multiplying around the world about a tiny insect revered by ancient Egyptians and Pharaohs. The world marvels at the secret of this reverence for pharaohs, sometimes a cat and sometimes an insect and sometimes the sun; what is the secret behind making ancient Egyptian scarab so important? Let’s take you for a quick tour of the world of the Egyptian scarab its history, and get into the details of its life up close:
History of Egyptian Scarab
First appearance: in the late ancient state (circa 2575 -2130 BC), it evolved from so-called button seals but remained rare until the Middle State (1938-1630 BC). At that time, it was made in huge numbers, and it was used as decorations and other jewelry and ornaments. It was used as a pure amulet, such as the Great Basalt’ Egyptian Heart scarab’ in the modern kingdom (1539-1075 BC) at the beginning of the first millennium BC.
The Phoenician seals adopted the use of Egyptian scarab. The Phoenician scarab seals reached their peak in the 5th to 4th century BC, spreading throughout the Mediterranean. Tharros, located on the island of Sardinia, was a significant production and distribution center. By this time, the seals were carved with Egyptian themes and with Erythre and Western Greek images.
Why is The Scarab Important to Ancient Egyptian Culture?
There were different types of scarabs during the era of the ancient Egyptians; there were heart scarab beetles, which were found in the shrouds, the marriage scarabs, the winged scarabs, those which bring luck, and others. Egyptian scarabs became high in ancient Pharaonic times until the ancient Egyptian put it next to his heart to give him the powers that made him live. It became one of the most critical mascots buried in Pharaonic tombs, and drawings were painted and obelized on the walls of temples.
The Most Famous Types of Egyptian Scarab Beetles :
- Heart Scarab Beetles
- The Marriage Scarabs
- The Winged Scarabs
- Those Which Bring Luck, and others
Egyptian Heart Scarab
Oh! My heart, the most faithful part of my being, does not stand as a witness against me before the court because you are the God in my body and my Creator who preserves my organs. It’s also strange that the pharaohs used to put scarabs in the coffins of the dead and painted them in the form of a heart and engraved on them commandments from The Book of the Dead, specifically the thirtieth paragraph, which appeals to the heart to stand on the Day of Judgment with its owner and testify with him that he was a good human being. They believed that it had a great power to protect the heart and give a new life to the deceased, so they would remove the soul from the corpse and put in its place an amulet in the form of a scarab.
Egyptian Winged Scarab Can Also Be Placed on The Mummy's Chests
Egyptian Scarab Jewellery
- “Peace is better than anger. Amon is the only strength and Happy New Year.” This is how the old wishes were written on the scarab and the king’s name and title, in addition to helical and zigzag inscriptions and images of Egyptian gods, sacred animals, and birds.
- The scarabs, which belong to King Thutmose III, read “Min Khair Ra”, which means “May Ra continue to bring life.” Scarabs were also placed in ancient temples and were considered funerary incantations. They were placed between the folds of the coffins of the dead.
- The deceased’s name was considered one of the most important rituals, and scarabs, souvenirs for the dead, were distributed to the families and friends of the deceased at funerals.
Egyptian Scarab- Pendant / Necklace
Ancient Scarab Beetle in Britain is Looking for its Home
The Uses of The Egyptian Scarabs
The uses of Egyptian scarabs varied in public life. Many of the scarabs were used as seals with the employee’s name and titles, and others bore royal names engraved with the attributes representing each king or queen from the ancient family to the late era. Over time, the scarab gained an important place among the pharaohs, becoming a symbol of Amun-Ra, the sun god.
The ancient Egyptian amulet that carries the resurrection to its owner and provides him with good luck and renews his youth, especially the types made of green, blue, and brown faience or stones, thinking that this insect carries within it the life power, which made it part of the holdings of Pharaonic tombs and temples.
“These things were buried with corpses, and I’m a bit superstitious, so I don’t like them, and I’d like them to be displayed somewhere, not in a wardrobe box.”
These were the words of John, the granddaughter of Alfred Middlemiss, a keeper of Darlington Park in Britain, to the morning regional daily newspaper “The Northern Echo, “whose first issue was published on January 1, 1870, as it was about 40 years ago, Her grandfather was on a typical working day, and while he was doing his work in the garden, something strange caught his attention on the ground.
It was a pharaonic stone carved in the form of a beetle, with hieroglyphs on the reverse side. He tried a lot to offer it in an auction and benefit financially by selling it. Still, he failed to obtain a suitable sale offer, and the pharaonic stone was transferred from his daughter until she died, and then the granddaughter inherited it.
An Ancient Egyptian Scarab Necklace is Calling For Help From its Prison
The newspaper says, “In 1979, Alfred decided to believe what Newberry had said and sent the scarab to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. To the period between 1000 to 700 BC. The hieroglyphic writing on the other side of the scarab indicates that it belongs to a Pharaonic king called “Menkhbar Ra,” and it is one of the names of the kings “Thutmose III,” “Nekhao,” and “Eni,” as confirmed by Bassam al-Shamaa, an Egyptology writer. The newspaper sent the e-mail to John and quoted her, quoting her, “Any organization interested in displaying the scarab should contact it via this mail.”
What Does an Egyptian Scarab Look Like?
During the ancient Egyptian period, scarabs were made of soapstone and colored blue and green. Later, limestone was used in its manufacture, as well as agate, turquoise, glass, lapis lazuli, basalt, amethyst, and terracotta, and to make it sacred, gold and silver were used for this purpose, but those made of gold and silver were rarely found, either to be stolen or to have melted for any reason. Formed from various materials, scarabs are most commonly vitreous and are an essential category of Egyptian antiquities.
The materials used in the manufacture of scarabs varied from stone, then agate, turquoise, and basalt, to gold and silver, which belonged to the class of kings and queens. In our time, many European people were interested in the Pharaonic scarab, as they saw that it brought good luck and were looking to buy it. And the last strange secrets about the scarab…Some specialists say that if you squeeze lemons on the original Pharaonic Scarab, it will move as if it were a living creature that breathed life into it.
As a result of the magic placed inside those scarabs, they move on a specific type of marble and move in self-movement. Rather, if you put the original scarab on a glass pane, it will move without placing a lemon or anything else on it. Many scarabs have been found in the pharaonic tombs. The length of the scarab ranges from 1 cm to 10 cm and is made of hard stone or limestone.
Its shape ranges from natural to almost like a scarab and from a beetle on which the wings are engraved to a scarab with a ram’s head. The stomach or flat side of the scarab is often engraved either by writing or drawings, depending on the intended purpose. Historically, the most valuable classes of scarabs are those with royal names. These ranged in history from the Eleventh Dynasty to the Late Era. Hyksos breed names are mainly found in scarab groups.
Egyptian Scarab Hieroglyph
The scarab came in the writings of the pharaohs with the meaning (come into existence), (to be), and (be patient). The image of the scarab was placed to carry the importance of these words in the ancient Pharaonic language.
Egyptian Scarab God
The name means ‘Khabar or ‘Khaybar (the newborn), which means (to come into being, happen, appear/coming into existence), ‘Khebar’ was the first God of the sun, indicating to exist after creation. Accordingly, he was associated with the god ‘Atum’ under the name ‘Atum-khebri.’ There is a Colorful view from the tomb of Queen Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens in Luxor; the Nineteenth Dynasty represents The idol’ Khebri,’ in the human form with a scarab-shaped head “.
What Does The Egyptian Scarab Represent?
The Egyptians imagined the disc of the sun, a small ball of dung, which the scarab rolled on the sand in the morning, thus pushing the morning sun in front of it when it rises, coming from the other world, which represents the transformations that occur to the man from life to death and then to resurrection.
Worship for Kheyber "Scarab's God":
As with many cosmic deities, there was no cult of Khyber, although the presence of colossal statues of him (such as the one next to the sacred lake at Karnak).
Egyptian Scarab Beetle’s Life Cycle
The life cycle of the pharaonic scarab or dung beetles According to entomologist Yves Campfort in his article’ Beetles as Religious Symbols’, scarabs, as the Egyptians reasoned, roll their feces and disappear, just as the sun rises and disappears every day. So does their solar God, Khepri, a human figure with the face of a scarab beetle, rolling the star across the sky, burying it at sunset. Then he digs it up again on the eastern horizon at dawn.
This beetle was associated with the divine appearance of the early morning sun, Khepri, whose name is written in scarab hieroglyphs and who is believed to roll the disk of the morning sun over the eastern horizon at dawn. But their navigating abilities become even more brutal. When the sun goes down, dung beetles can use the moon to navigate. But what if there was no moon?
In 2013, scientists went out on a moonless night and put little hats on some beetles to hide their vision and discovered, unbelievably, that these creatures use the Milky Way To orient themselves; it is the only known case in the animal kingdom. Without the hats, the person would have been moving around pretty well. Strap an adorable little hat on a dung beetle, and it’s stumbling around like a drunk. So perhaps the dung beetle was more of a solar deity than the Egyptians thought.
Why do Beetles Roll Poop?
There is no modest lifestyle like that of a dung beetle, which spends its days digging between remains and dirt, forming dung into balls, and this behavior is what makes the dung beetle central to many ecosystems.
Egyptian scarab beetle facts
There are about 6,000 species of dung beetles on every continent except Antarctica, where there is little faeces. They come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from the 4-inch Goliath beetle, one of the giant insects in the world, to the smaller but most famous scarabs beetle, which was worshipped and hurt by ancient Egyptians in the “Mummy” movie.
Scarabaeus sacer: The scientific name has also adopted these creatures a wide range of techniques to find out the best way to live from waste. Some find a pile of dung and dig in it, while others build a tunnel under the rise, establish a nest, and dig up now and then for a snack. Others still hold small pieces and pull them away with their hind legs.
Scarab Beetle "Symbol Ancient Egyptians Life"
Because of this strange life cycle, the scarab was not only a symbol of the sun for the Egyptians but also of life itself. Thus, the humble dung beetle fully deserves the worship it received from the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks even put him on the throne, claiming to be the king of the legendary dwarves.
The Milky Way and The Ancient Egyptian Scarab Beetle
Abdul Moneim Abdul Azim, archaeological researcher and director of studies of the heritage of Upper Egypt, says that the Egyptian scarab beetle was closely related to the idea of creation automatically, through linguistic similarity, considered by the ancient Egyptians to represent the Creator Lord, who created himself ‘Khabari’ like the sunshine.
As the scarabs collect dung every morning and make it in the form of a ball, they put eggs inside it and then roll it with their hind legs, simulating by doing this march of the sun from east to west. From here, they considered him a symbol of the God of the sun and the safety of Egypt. The idea that there is a close relationship between sunrise and What scarabs do every morning is seen by
Five Minutes Into The Life of The Ancient Egyptian Scarab
Ancient Egyptians as a symbol of good luck. It has been proven that these beetles see their way during the day with a characteristic that is lacking in the eyes of humans, which is the sensation of light polarized from the sun’s rays, i.e., whose waves go in one direction, which is not the usual light whose waves spread in every order and are characterized by our eyes, and this means that in the eyes of those beetles, a kind of filters and receivers of light are very advanced.
This also allows it to be guided in the night’s moonlight by the polarized light of the moon’s light. Still, the most impressive thing happens on the nights when the moon is absent when it is guided to its targets by the polarized light of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. This is almost the unique object shown in its way by the glow of the universe! It is noticeable that the paths of rolling dung balls are done in straight lines, which means the desire to accomplish the task of moving these balls to their target across the shortest routes and as quickly as possible.
Egyptian Scarab Tattoo Design
Ancient Egyptian civilization has always been the talk of the world, and therefore, don’t wonder when you see a tiny insect representing a great value to the world just because the pharaohs have been able to do it As the fame of the Pharaonic scarab reached all the countries of the world which many tourists come from them to the temple of Karnak where there is a statue of a vast rose granite carved accurately and polished with a technique that seems miraculous to roam around it ‘, also many foreign people on Google look for designs to draw tattoo in the form of ancient Egyptian scarabs.
“the tourist guide, Tayeb Abdullah Hassan, an expert in Egyptology.”
The ancient Egyptian scarab in the Temple of Karnak is among the most famous and giant scarabs. There are two scarabs in Alexandria and another in the Nubian Museum. There are on the walls of many tombs drawings of ancient Egyptian images of it, pointing out that ‘holy scarab,’ as considered by the inhabitants of the country and foreigners, requires to tour around it seven times counterclockwise, to bring luck, to nullify the magic of ‘mascara or envy, not to have children, and to untie the jinx as well, adding: All this propaganda which was launched by some tour guides, all of them are myths that don’t make sense in the scientific speech.
The Importance of Scarab Beetles to The Ancient Egyptians and The World!
Previously, scarab beetles played a significant role in agriculture by removing dirt and collecting it away from cows and livestock that could die from viruses inside the dung. This process contributes to the constant ventilation of the soil, the American Institute of Biological Sciences said.
It helps improve hygiene standards and has saved the U.S. livestock industry from an estimated loss of about $380 million a year by burying animal waste and keeping cows away from dung-contained viruses and bacteria. It is being used as a Chinese herbal remedy to cure many diseases. It has been used by Australia to collect dirt, making it difficult for flies to meet on farms around dung, and is being used in New Zealand to reduce global warming in the soil.
What is a Scarab?
A scarab, also called scarabaeus, is a type of beetle belonging to the Scarabaeidae family. In ancient Egypt, the scarab beetle held a special place in the hearts and minds of the Egyptians, captivating their imagination with its distinctive characteristics and cultural symbolism.
What is a Scarab in Ancient Egypt?
In ancient Egyptian culture, the scarab held immense religious and spiritual significance. The beetle was associated with the sun god, Ra, who was believed to roll the sun across the sky, just as the scarab rolled dung balls containing its eggs. This association with the sun god tied the scarab to ideas of rebirth, transformation, and the eternal cycle of life.
What is a Scarab Beetle?
The scarab beetle, commonly found in Egypt, was known for its unique appearance and behavior. With its rounded body and distinctive, often metallic colors, it stood out among other insects. Egyptians observed the beetle’s habit of rolling balls of dung, a behavior they likened to the sun’s journey across the sky.
What is the Meaning of a Scarab?
The scarab beetle held deep symbolic meaning in ancient Egyptian culture. It represented the concepts of rebirth, resurrection, and regeneration. The image of the scarab was frequently used in amulets, jewelry, and tomb decorations to provide protection and ensure the deceased’s successful journey into the afterlife.
What is the Significance of a Scarab?
The significance of the scarab extended beyond religious beliefs. The beetle symbolizes the cyclical nature of life and the eternal renewal of existence. Egyptians believed wearing or possessing scarab amulets would bring good luck, fertility, and protection against evil forces. The scarab was also closely associated with Khepri, the morning aspect of the sun god, representing creation and new beginnings.
- Scarab Symbolism in Ancient Egypt
The scarab’s symbolism extended into various aspects of Egyptian life. Scarabs were often incorporated into funerary practices, including being placed on the chests of mummies or used as seals on tombs. They were believed to assist the deceased in the afterlife and protect against harm. The scarab’s role in the cycle of life and death made it an important symbol in religious and funerary rituals.
- Scarab Beetle Tattoo Meaning
In modern times, scarab beetle tattoos have gained popularity, often chosen for their symbolic significance. A scarab beetle tattoo can represent transformation, growth, and life cycles. It serves as a reminder of ancient Egyptian beliefs and the profound connection between humans and nature.
Conclusion
The scarab beetle is prominent in ancient Egyptian culture, its symbolism pervading religious beliefs, funerary practices, and everyday life. Associated with the sun god Ra and imbued with ideas of rebirth and regeneration, the scarab represented the eternal cycle of life and death. Today, the scarab’s enduring legacy serves as a reminder of the profound connection between humans, nature, and the mysteries of the ancient world.