Scarabs and Cylinders With Names - Illustrated by the Egyptian Collection in University College, London #226651

Not only are the dried animals thus found, but the intention with which they were buried is vouched for, by the models of beetles pierced to be worn as amulets. At Naqadeh two beetles of green serpentine were found, of prehistoric age, copied from the long bright green beetle now found living in the Sudan (naqada, lviii). Other beetles of the same kind cut in sard, and one in crystal, have been found in graves at Tarkhan, about an (sequence Date) 77 — 8. In another grave of sd. 77, was a group of amulets with two desert beetles cut in Opaque green ser pentine. Of s.d. 77 also, was a translucent green serpentine beetle found in the lowest level of the town of Abydos (ab. I, 1i, Slightly later, but before the ist dynasty, was another long beetle found in the temple of Abydos (ab. Ii, xiv, Of an. 78, just before Mena, there is the most striking instance of a reliquary case, to be worn as a charm, made of alabaster in the form of the true Scarabaeus sacer (grave 27, Tarkhan I, iii, 4, xiv, About the 'time of King Den (sd. 81) in a grave at Tarkhan (120) was a jar containing many large desert beetles. Passalacqua found the Buprestis beetle embalmed at Thebes. The variety of beetles here-mentioned, beside the commonly recognised scarabaeus, is what is to be expected, as we find that four other genera are clearly copied in the scarabs of later times, and are alluded to in papyri for magical use.