This stunning black scarab beetle sculpture is handmade from natural Egyptian alabaster. Alabaster was a highly-used material in Pharaonic times—used to make everything from small vessels to sculptures and tombs. Alabaster was used for a variety of different items, from small vessels to carry perfumes, to burial items, to sculptures and tombs. It was a highly-versatile material due to its soft and easily malleable texture as well as its natural white color with natural colored veins
The scarab beetle was one of the most significant religious symbols in ancient Egypt, associated with the mighty sun god, Ra.
The Egyptians viewed the scarab as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. The beetle was associated closely with the sun god because it rolls large balls of dung to lay their eggs, a behavior that the Egyptians thought resembled the progression of the sun through the sky from east to west.
Its young were hatched from this dung ball. This was seen as an act of spontaneous self-creation, giving the beetle an even stronger link with the Ra’s creative force. The connection between the beetle and the sun was so strong that the sun god was thought to be reborn in the form of a winged scarab beetle every morning when the sun rises. As this young sun god, Khepri, rose in the sky, he brought light and life to the land.