Egyptian Scarabs - Richard H. Wilkinson
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Egyptian Scarabs - Richard H. Wilkinson
“Scarabs are the most abundant artifacts to have survived from ancient Egypt and are arguably the most important…”
Scarabs (belonging to the scarabaeidae family of beetles which are found all around the world) are technically a type of dung beetle. Wilkinson gives a nice little description of their forms and lives as an introduction to the role the scarab in Egyptian lives. Insect avoidant as I am, I still found it enlightening.
Because this type of beetle rolls, well, dung into balls which they then roll to their nests, early Egyptians associated them with the god Khepri - the rising sun disk. Although this god had no formal cult he was deeply significant, as he was believed to be reborn every morning and symbolized rebirth in the afterlife. He was ubiquitous, especially in the form of a scarab. Indeed a scarab was the hieroglyph for the word kheper, which meant, roughly, ‘come into being.’ The book detail the various forms places the god as insect is found, from the Valley of the Queens to Karnak.
Early scarabs forms were mainly amulets, but by the end of the Old Kingdom they began to appear as seals. Already the most popular amulet form, the style of their carvings had become quite detailed. During the Middle Kingdom period they were even mass produced, with elaborate, varied designs on their under sides. In the later periods scarabs were even worn for both adornment and protection.
In the New Kingdom two new types of scarab appeared: the heart and commemorative scarabs.
The heart played an important role in the weighing of maat in the afterlife, and heart scarabs were meant to magically aid this judgement. A spell, found in the Book of the Dead, was commonly inscribed on heart scarabs, which were then placed in our on the body of a mummy. The Book also detailed how to make the amulet correctly. Larger and more detailed than a typical scarab, they were included symbols of the afterlife and of Osiris.
Commemorative scarabs were, not too shockingly, made to celebrate special events. Most common in the time of Amenhotep III, the custom pre- and post- dated him. Because of the amount of text recorded on them these scarabs could be huge. The language was extremely formal, all of the King’s titles were used, then his Queen was named, then the details of the commemorated event.
Some of the events remembered this way included : the recognition of Tiy as Amenhotep’s Great Wife ; a bull hunt in Shetep ; over one hundred lion hunts ; the arrival of a Syrian princess to join the royal harem (it is pleasant to note that on this scarab Tiy is prominently named as Great Wife. Good for her).
Interestingly no military victories were ever celebrated this way. Akhenaten continued this practice in the early years of his reign, but with far simpler inscriptions. It is possible he commissioned more than were found, but they were lost when the Aten cult was destroyed.
Scarabs spread across the ancient world, but without much of their ceremonial meaning but seen as good luck and a form of protection. Indeed they were made in such places as Canaan, Carthage, and even Spain. One Phoenician scarab is carved with a meaningless jumble of Egyptian, Greek and Aegean symbols, the artist having clearly decided better safe than sorry when it came to asking the gods for safekeeping.
By the later periods scarabs had last a great deal of their cache. While still found in large quantities, those that were made at that time were of less specific significance, they were now generic household items.