Scarab Symbolism of the Ancient World

By NORAH ROMNEY

In ancient Egypt, the scarabaeus was already the symbol of an elevated religious idea, embracing a human soul's future life, its resurrection from the grave, and, most likely, its reward or punishment in the next life, based on its conduct in life.

As far as we have determined, the use of scarabaeus models as symbols of new life and the future eternal life of the triumphant or justified dead pre-existed in the earliest historical knowledge we have about Ancient Egypt. An inscription on the lid of the coffin of Men-Kau-Ra, king of the fourth Memphite Dynasty (circa 3633-3600 B.C.), and builder of the Third Pyramid at Giza, confirms that some of the most elevated conceptions of the Per-em-hru, i.e., the so-called Book of the Dead, existed as accepted facts. The dead One became an Osiris during this early period, living forever.

Most likely, it predates Mena, the first historical Egyptian king. It is impossible to predict how long before his period existed in Light of our current knowledge of Egypt's ancient history and thought. We know nothing about the indigenous people of Egypt. We can guarantee that the group known to us as the Egyptian originated in Asia and was Caucasian. The invader had an elevated form of religious belief when he arrived in the Valley of the Nile.

One of the earliest stela, now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, and the other in the Museum at Giza, Egypt, was carved for the tomb of Shera, a priest of Sent, the fifth king of the Second Dynasty who lived about 4000 BC. Lepsius shows the stele in his Auswahl, and it is the oldest known hieroglyphic inscription. This stele represents a false door.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DTTV PUBLICATIONS
• Release date: May 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201115685

NORAH ROMNEY

Norah Romney is a Maori- Inuit ambassador with lineage to both cultures, she was orphaned early in her life losing both parents in a plane crash in the Pacific, she was adopted in the UK to  a family of archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and folklorists. She is the first woman to be appointed as a lecturer in ethno-archaeology, and cultural folklorist as ambassador to to the Inuit's, she has spoken vastly on Maori traditions in 74 nations. Adopted into a wealthy middle-class English family in the United Kingdom, she sees herself as a global citizen with diverse roots, Having achieved Egyptology and Mesoamerican Qualifications her focus is now on Global Mythologies and their insight into ancient civilizations.

Book preview

NORAH ROMNEY

INTRODUCTION

In ancient Egypt, the scarabaeus was already the symbol of an elevated religious idea, embracing a human soul's future life, its resurrection from the grave, and, most likely, its reward or punishment in the next life, based on its conduct in life.

As far as we have determined, the use of scarabaeus models as symbols of new life and the future eternal life of the triumphant or justified dead pre-existed in the earliest historical knowledge we have about Ancient Egypt. An inscription on the lid of the coffin of Men-Kau-Ra, king of the fourth Memphite Dynasty (circa 3633-3600 B.C.), and builder of the Third Pyramid at Giza, confirms that some of the most elevated conceptions of the Per-em-hru, i.e., the so-called Book of the Dead, existed as accepted facts. The dead One became an Osiris during this early period, living forever.

Most likely, it predates Mena, the first historical Egyptian king. It is impossible to predict how long before his period existed in Light of our current knowledge of Egypt's ancient history and thought. We know nothing about the indigenous people of Egypt. We can guarantee that the group known to us as the Egyptian originated in Asia and was Caucasian. The invader had an elevated form of religious belief when he arrived in the Valley of the Nile.

One of the earliest stela, now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, and the other in the Museum at Giza, Egypt, was carved for the tomb of Shera, a priest of Sent, the fifth king of the Second Dynasty who lived about 4000 BC. Lepsius shows the stele in his Auswahl, and it is the oldest known hieroglyphic inscription. This stele represents a false door.

This stele of Shera is inscribed with the Egyptian prayer for the Soul of the Dead, the Sutton-Hotep-ta. Suten-Hotep-ta was supposed to have been revealed by divine revelation.

According to an old text, a Suten-Hotep-ta exactly corresponds to texts of sacrificial offerings, passed down by the ancients as coming directly from God.

On the mentioned stele, there is a prayer asking for oblations to be made for the deceased in the other world, including thousands of oxen, linen bandages, cakes, vessels of wine, incense, this shows that there was a belief in Egypt in the future life of the Ba, the responsible Soul, and of the Ka, the vital Soul of the deceased.

Ka enters the names of kings Ka-Kau, Nefer-ka-Ra, and Nefer-ka-Seker from the Second Dynasty (4133-3966 B.C.). Ba, the Name of the responsible Soul, and its plural, Baidu, enter Neter-Baiu and Ba-en-neter. The Heart, Ab, also appears in the Name of Per-ab-sen of this Dynasty. Mer-ba-pen, the sixth king of the First Dynasty, also has Ba in his Name.

A medical papyrus was edited during king Sent's reign, resulting from years of experience. According to what we have just said, the body was likely mummified in Egypt from the very beginning of history. Manetho says Teta, the second king of the First Dynasty, wrote an anatomy book and experimented with drugs or chemicals. The mother of this king invented a hair wash.

According to the preceding, it is plausible to assume that the belief in an eternal life of the Soul after the Death of the body, for actions committed in this earthly life, existed before the historical era of Ancient Egypt; whether a belief in rewards or punishments for actions taken in this earthly life existed, we cannot say with certainty, but it is likely. It is highly recommended for students to study the Pyramid Texts.

For a student of religions, the scarabaeus symbol is the earliest expression of the most ancient idea of the Soul's immortality after Death, which has reached our day, taking us back in time.

Although it may be a period that is civilized and enlightened, and yet, so engulfed by the mists of time that the mental eye of today cannot grasp that past, leading us almost to think that the doctrine of the immortality of the human Soul was a remnant of an early divine revelation, or at least, a developed instinct of early humanity;

The more we investigate the origins of archaic Egyptian religious thinking, the more perfect and elevated they seem to be in the spiritual world and the unseen world. It advanced most significantly after the era of the Ancient Empire and gradually merged into the animalism of the New Empire and the gross paganism of the Greeks and Romans.

We have not yet studied and made available many religious texts of the Ancient Empire. The idealism of the Supreme Deity and belief in the Soul's immortality, based on man's pious, ethical and charitable conduct, speak highly of an early, very elevated thought in religious ideas.

However, students of religion should be struck by the idea of rebirth and future eternal life of pious and moral Dead that existed among the Ancient Egyptians long before Moses lived. Both the New Testament and the so-called profane writers Philo and Josephus assert that Moses had learned all the wisdom and knowledge of the Egyptians of his day.

A direct assertion of the doctrine of a future life or immortality of the Human Soul, or a future reward or punishment in a future state of the Soul, is not found in the pages of the Pentateuch, which is usually attributed to him by theologians. However, separating the spiritual part of man into distinct divisions is set forth.

It is possible the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings, an Asian people who are probably Semitic, did not accept the immortality doctrine as a religious dogma. In Egypt, the influx and increase of the Hebrew population began under the Hyksos, who advanced the