Originally posted by: oye_nakhrewaali
1 question, why beetle?
Tutankhamun's Heart Scarab or Scarab Pectoral of Tutankhamun
Scarab Pectoral was found in Tutankhamun's tomb along with hundreds of other pieces of jewelry. He probably wore it during his lifetime, hung from a gold chain around his neck. It shows a scarab beetle with a sun on top and a bowl on the bottom, and a pair of bird's wings.
Nebkheperure
But the pectoral is also a word - all the parts are hieroglyphs. The sun is re, the scarab is kheper, the three lines make kheper plural (add a 'u' in Egyptian) and the bowl is neb which means 'lord'. So the whole thing says Nebkheperure, which means 'Re is the Lord of Forms.'
What is it made of?
The pectoral is made of gold, inlaid with scarab beetle made of lapis lazuli, red carnelian, and turquoise. Lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
What does it mean?
All these parts of the pectoral are symbols. The scarab stood for the sun god, Re-Kheperi. The Egyptians saw the scarab beetle rolling balls of dung (its food) across the ground, and this reminded them of the sun travelling across the sky. So the pectoral shows the sun god rolling the sun across the sky. The wings show that it is flying.
The Book of the Dead contains 200 spells and rituals for burying the dead in the time of the Ancient Egyptians. Information about the scarab beetle is found in a chapter of the book called ‘Weighing the heart against the feather of truth’. The scarab was an amulet or lucky charm placed on the heart to protect it on its journey to the afterlife. The heart was the only organ left in a body when it was mummified. This was because it was believed that the heart stored the thoughts and memories of an individual that would be needed in the afterlife.
In extraordinary cases where the heart was damaged or lost, the heart scarab could replace the original heart. It was also an essential funerary amulet, because it played a key role during the weighing of the heart. The scarab was inscribed with a magic spell that would ensure that the heart would not bear witness against his owner, and in doing so, it would clear the way for a successful resurrection. That is why a scarab was found placed on the heart of Tutankhamun in his tomb. In Tutankhamun's case the heart scarab was not found on the body of the king, but it was found near the canopic chest.
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