Scarab beetles can be found
in South America and Egypt. The dung beetle fossils date
back 40 million years . Ancient Egyptians immortalized the
scarab beetle as sacred. The scarab beetle was chosen as
sacred because it lays eggs in decaying matter in which the
young beetles hatch. To the Egyptians this process signified
rebirth, and as the scarab beetles were "reborn" from decay
they also looked forward to a rebirth or life after death.
They also believed that the scarab beetle stood for their
sun god, Ra. Ra was the Egyptian god who rolled the sun
across the sky and buried it each night. One of the ways Egyptians
used scarabs was during mummification. After an organ was
removed from the body, the remaining space was sometimes
filled by a large stone scarab. Scarabs carved in
semiprecious stones are still used in jewelry and as
good-luck charms. They became so sacred that they were put
on unique stones to wear as jewelry.
