Beetles in Stone: the Egyptian Scarab Author(S): William A
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Beetles in Stone: The Egyptian Scarab Author(s): William A. Ward Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 186-202 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3210428 . Accessed: 10/09/2011 22:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The American Schools of Oriental Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Biblical Archaeologist. http://www.jstor.org ile a biologist may appreci- Scarab Origins, Beetles in ate the beauty of the beetle's Manufacture, and Use physical structure and the wonder and precision of its life cycle, Origins Stone: The to most of us the beetle is simply a pest, Around 2500 BCE,a class of small stone certainly not a creature to be endowed design amulets began to appear in Egyptian with awe and respect. The Egyptian Egypt, found primarily with women attitude toward the beetle was quite and children buried in cemeteries of the the opposite of the attitudes of most ordinary people of Egypt. The earliest Scarab people today.1The beetle is an extraor- examples are shaped like a tiny pyra- dinarily common motif in Egyptian art, mid and have geometric and animal By William A. Ward it was honored in religious thought, designs engraved on the bottom sur- and the name of the beetle and its pic- face. As time went by, the shape of these ture portrayed the idea "to come into objects changed into circularbases with existence" in the Egyptian language a pierced knob on the back, the form and script. The Egyptians honored the which caused early archaeologiststo call beetle because it represented some- these objects"button seals." Shortly after The male beetle makes a ball of dung to thing that was deeply meaningful this, design amulets began evolving into be buriedjust under the surface and used within the framework of their beliefs objects that retained the circularor oval later as a food supply.To rollthis food sup- about the universe. It spoke about the base, but were now carved with backs ply to where it will be buried, the beetle powers they believed controlled that in the form of animal or human heads, balances on its rearlegs, using the front and universe, and reflected thoughts about or whole animal or human figures.2 middle pairto push the ball. Photographby the Egyptians themselves and their One of these animals was the beetle. S. 1. Bishara.From Ward 1978:1071. eternal existence. Within a very short time, the beetle be- -" - , .' • -- . •',,a . ,•,• :,.- . .r. N, . ~5? ?Yj ) ?'???? It L L came almost the only back used on this class of object.It is this final stage of artisticdevelopment that is called the "scarab.3"From about 2200 BCEto late 44 in Egyptian history,scarabs remained one of the most common objectsmanu- factured in Egypt. Hundreds of thou- II sands are known in museums around Pi 'L? the world. They are found in every ex- C 44 " cavation in Egypt and across the ancient world from Syria to Spain. By the end of 16iIQ ~ ~ 'st its long history,the scarab had become a universal objectin the Mediterranean countries and was manufactured in many places outside Egypt. What was -? ~i~ lb created as a small amulet for women and children of the poorer classes of Egypt became an internationalobject for all classes of people everywhere in the ancient world. Life Cycle of the Dung Beetle But the immediate question is: why the beetle? Or more specifically,why one species of this insect, the dung beetle? The female beetle makes an oval ball underground.The egg is placed in a pouch on this Nothing can be less inspiring to us than ball which becomes the food supply for the larvaonce the egg is hatched. Casualobservers an army of beetles crawling around a never notice the female's activityand can easily attributethe birth-cycleto the male alone. Bishara.From dung-heap. But the Egyptians saw Photographby S. I. Ward1978: 101. something vitally significantin that very situation. They saw a vision of rebirth into paradise, the resurrectionof the 12 3 soul; they saw the daily rebirthof their most powerful symbol, the sun, as it appears each morning over the eastern horizon. They saw, of course, what they thought was the beginning and the end of the birth cycle of the dung beetle. Time after time, they witnessed the ma- 4 ture beetle rolling a ball of dung, bury- ing this ball under the earth,and some fifteen to eighteen weeks later,a new beetle emerging from the ground. But the Egyptians misunderstood the life cycle of the dung beetle. 7 The dung beetle actually makes two balls of dung, one round and one pear- shaped.4The round ball is simply a food supply tucked away somewhere in the sand for storage in a kind of kitchen pantry.The pear-shaped ball is in the one which the egg is actually laid. Design-amulets and earlyscarabs. Scarabsare one form of an earlytype of object, the de- But this pear-shaped maternal ball was sign-amulet, the earliest (1) having a pyramidshaped back. These soon developed into exam- made underground. Casual observers ples with shanks (2) and knobs (3) as well as animal and human figures (4-5). The beetle form, never see it; they see only the round ball or scarab, was one of the latter,from the first small ones (6) to the largermore elaborate style made on the surface.This led to the (7). The objects shown here date ca. 2300 to 2100 BCE.Drawings after Brunton(1927; 1948). BiblicalArchlaeologist 57:4 (1994) 187 -y I ,/ \r ---2Z The god Khepri seated in his barkas the personificationof the morning sun; after a vignette Important Egyptian officials were grant- to Chapter17 of the Book of the Dead written during the New Kingdom.Khepri is identified ed the use of a royalsignet ring with which by the symbol of a beetle on his head. The dung beetle (ScarabaeusSacer L),the model for they could seal documents in the king's the scarabamulet, was associated with Kheprialready in the PyramidTexts of the Old Kingdom. name. Here, an unnamed treasuryofficial of He is frequentlymentioned in the Book of the Dead as being a self-engendered deity who KingTutankhamon (ca. 1336-1327 BCE)pre- each night creates the morning sun that emerges the next morning. The name Kheprimeans sents such a seal to the Viceroyof Nubia, "Hewho comes into existence (by himself);"that of the dung beetle/scarabwas kheprer,"that Amenhotep, who is identified in this scene which continuouslycomes into existence (by itself)."Drawing from E. Navillel971:pl. 30. by his nickname-Huy.In the book of Genesis, Joseph is said to have received such a seal when he became the EgyptianMinister of misconceptionthat it is the largeround up. Whenthe larva breaks out of theegg, Agriculture.From the tomb of Amenhotep, ballin whichthe egg is placedand from it feedson thematernal ball. When ready no. 40 in the Theban necropolis. Drawing whichthe new beetleis born.In reality, to changeinto the pupal stage, it burrows from Newberry, 1906: pl. II. the malebeetle works on thesurface to deeperinto the earth. Here it carvesout createthe familyfood supply,while the anotherchamber in whichit changes supremesymbol of birth,of life,and femaleis undergroundpreparing the intoa pupa,feeding on plantroots. After especiallythe secondbirth into eternal nursery. two to threeweeks, it emergeson the existence.The little stone scarab had In makingthe roundfeeding-ball, surfaceas a youngbeetle. becomea powerfulamulet to help as- the dung beetleuses its powerfulfore- sureeternal life in paradise,a meaning legs and a spade-likeprojection in front Symbolic Associations whichwas maintainedthroughout its calledthe clypeus. These are the tools and other Uses long history.The scarab signified the with whichit worksby scoopingand Observationsof the dung beetlemade regenerativepowers of Atumthe cre- moldingthe raw materialuntil it forms by the Egyptiansare what made this ator,and Re,the providerof life.As a ballof dung aboutfour to five times insectso importantto them(Ward 1978: such,it was a potenttalisman indeed. its own size.This is the taskof the male 43-46; de Meulenaere1972; Giveon Butscarabs also had otheruses. We beetlewho laboriouslycollects the raw 1974).Here was a creaturethat emerged now know thatthe early design amulets material;then pushing, patting, shap- out of theearth, an immediatesymbol of weresometimes used as seals,for ex- ing,builds up a near-perfectsphere that theresurrection of thedead. Because they ample,on theclay stoppers of pottery is easilyrolled to whereit will be buried misunderstoodthe actualbirth-cycle, jars(Giddy and Grimal1979:38-39; in the sand. they apparentlythought of thebeetle as 1980:267-68).By around 2000 BCE,the Meanwhile,the femalelabors under- beingof a singlesex, male,who planted impressionof a scarabbecame a com- groundmaking the pear-shapedmater- his seed in the roundball out of which mon methodfor sealing many kinds of nalball in whichthe egg is to be laid. camehis offspring.They very early asso- objects.Their designs were impressed Workingalone, she burrowsfour to ciatedthis mistaken view withthe divine into theclay stoppersof potteryvessels, eightinches into the ground, digs out a powerthey called Khepri, who was a or the mud sealingson storagechests or chamberabout four inches square, formof thesun-god Re, the morning rolled-uppapyrus documents.