scarab

/skar"euhb/, n.

1. any scarabaeid beetle, esp. Scarabaeus sacer, regarded as sacred by the ancient Egyptians.

2. a representation or image of a beetle, much used among the ancient Egyptians as a symbol, seal, amulet, or the like.

3. a gem cut to resemble a beetle.

Also, scarabaeus (for defs. 2, 3).

[1570-80; short for SCARABAEUS]

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In Egyptian religion, a symbol of immortality much used in funerary art.

It was inspired by the life cycle of the scarab beetle; the dung balls that the beetles consume, lay their eggs in, and use to feed their young represented a cycle of rebirth and were associated with immortality and with the passage of the sun across the heavens. Many scarabs were made of precious metals and were worn as amulets or used as seals. First appearing с 2575–с 2130 BC, they were fashioned in great numbers during the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom.

Scarab commemorating the marriage of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiy, 18th dynasty; in the Oriental ...

Courtesy of the Oriental Institute, the University of Chicago

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▪ Egyptian symbol

Latin  Scarabaeus 

 in ancient Egyptian religion, important symbol in the form of the dung beetle (Scarabaeus sacer), which lays its eggs in dung balls fashioned through rolling. This beetle was associated with the divine manifestation of the early morning sun, Khepri, whose name was written with the scarab hieroglyph and who was believed to roll the disk of the morning sun over the eastern horizon at daybreak. Since the scarab hieroglyph, Kheper, refers variously to the ideas of existence, manifestation, development, growth, and effectiveness, the beetle itself was a favourite form used for amulets in all periods of Egyptian history.

      Scarabs of various materials, glazed steatite being most common, form an important class of Egyptian antiquities. Such objects usually have the bases inscribed or decorated with designs and are simultaneously amulets (amulet) and seals (seal). Though they first appeared in the late Old Kingdom (c. 2575–c. 2130 BCE), when they evolved from the so-called button seals, scarabs remained rare until Middle Kingdom times (1938–c. 1630 BCE), when they were fashioned in great numbers. Some were used simply as ornaments, while others were purely amuletic in purpose, as the large basalt “heart scarabs” of the New Kingdom (1539–1075 BCE) and later times, which were placed in the bandages of mummies (mummy) and were symbolically identified with the heart of the deceased. A winged scarab might also be placed on the breast of the mummy, and later a number of other scarabs were placed about the body.

      The seal type of scarab was, however, the most common, and many clay sealings have been found attesting to this use. Spiral motifs and titles of officials are characteristic of Middle Kingdom examples, while on later scarabs a wide variety of designs and inscriptions are found. The inscriptions are sometimes mottoes referring to places, deities, and so on or containing words of good omen or friendly wishes. Historically, the most valuable class of scarabs is that which bears royal names; these ranged in date from the 11th dynasty to the Late Period. The names of the Hyksos dynasts have been largely recovered from collections of scarabs.

      A related type of seal amulet, called by Egyptologists the scaraboid, was similar in shape but lacked the details of the beetle's anatomy. Egyptian scarabs were carried by trade throughout the eastern Mediterranean and to Mesopotamia. Numerous examples of Greek and Etruscan imitations have also been found.

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