Friday, November 19, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Scarabs are Loved by Mummies
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| Heart Scarab |
Did you know that about 100 heart scarabs were placed in a mummy's heart, so that is why they are loved by mummies. The reason why the scarab was placed at a mummies heart was to make sure that the mummy went into the afterlife with all of his or her wits intact. There are tiny hieroglyphics that are magic spells to make sure that the heart doesn't testify against the owner at the weighing of the heart ceremony. Try writing tiny hieroglyphics on a small amulet, it's not so easy. Since the Egyptians place 100 of those little scarabs in a mummy's heart, it will probably take forever to write all of those magical spells.
The Symbol of Ancient Egypt
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| Scarab Beetle |
This is going to sound a little weird but scarab babies come out of dung. First of all, the mommy and the daddy scarab fertilize the dung and they bury it underground. In about a few days the babies hatch and the hatching part is what the Egyptians saw. So the ancient Egyptians thought the scarab beetle was born magically from a ball of dung so they associate it with rebirth and afterlife. It sounds out of the ordinary but this is all true.
Numerous Types of Scarabs
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Heart Scarab |
As you may know from the title that there are many types of scarabs. The funny part about it is that there are only two types of scarabs, so those are the ones you are going to learn about. The first one out of the two I am going to talk about are the winged scarabs. They are virtually always made of blue faience and incorporated into bead nets covering mummies. The last type of scarab are the heart scarabs. They had hieroglyphics with magical spells carved on the bottom of the scarab. The reason for the magic spells was so that the heart did not testify against the owner at the weighing of the heart ceremony. There are 100 heart scarabs placed at the heart of the scarab hence the name heart scarab. Those are the two types of scarabs in ancient Egypt.
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| Winged Scarab |
The Meaning of the Scarab
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| A Scarab Amulet |
Imagine yourself in ancient Egypt wearing a beetle around your neck, EW. In fact in ancient Egypt the scarab was worn to protect a person wearing it like how a shield protects you from a sword. You can see the scarab as a small charm or an amulet. A scarab is a real bug but in ancient Egypt, it is a type of jewelery if you want to look good. The scarab was also thought to carry the sun into the heavens, so people wanted its protection to take them to heaven as well. Do you want to wear the scarab now that you know what it does for you?
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