It is, however, as a “charm” or “amulet” having magical qualities that the scarab is usually spoken of at the present day, and that a few of them had a magical signification is proved beyond a doubt by the inscriptions that are found engraved upon some of them. There is also a mention of a scarab being employed for the purposes of magic in a magical receipt book[109] of the period intervening between the end of the Twelfth and the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty; but it must here be remarked that in this case the scarab is called a _khetem_ or “seal,” which clearly shows that the Egyptians regarded these objects primarily as seals, to whatever other uses they may have put them.
From the fact that scarabs bearing royal names are often found with mummies in the tombs, it has been conjectured that they were laid with the dead “to place them under the protection of their former lord in the next world, and to ensure that they should follow him and share in all the immunities and privileges that so great a divine being would enjoy with the gods.”
Another theory regarding Egyptian scarabs is that they were employed as tokens of value, but, as we have already remarked,[110] the idea that they were used for the purposes of barter or exchange is not supported by the inscriptions, or by any of the scenes depicted on the walls of the ancient tombs or temples. The statement of Plato that engraved stones were used in Ethiopia as money refers to Ethiopia alone and not to Egypt, for there was certainly no coined money in the Nile Valley until the period of the Ptolemies.
Other archaeologists there are who hold that these objects were made and used for the purpose of personal decoration; but although there is every reason to believe that they were often, perhaps generally, worn on the person, it by no means follows that this was their only or even their principal use. At the present day we often carry our seals on our watch chains, or we wear our signets as rings on our fingers, but we cannot rightly say that these articles were made solely for the adornment of the person.
These are the principal theories regarding the use and signification of the Egyptian scarab which have been set forth in works hitherto published on the subject, but archaeologists are beginning to abandon these views in favour of another and a simpler one, that has not as yet been discussed at length, but that recognizes in these little objects nothing more than a simple seal or signet.[111] This use is borne witness to by the great number of actual impressions of them on bits of clay that have served as seals to letters and other documents, as well as to boxes, vases, and bags that have been found in the ruins of ancient towns; and these impressions include every variety of scarab—royal, official, and private, as well as those bearing figures of animals and ornamental patterns. The large number of scarabs which bear the names of officials and private persons also points to the same conclusion, for it is impossible to regard the examples of this extensive group in any other light than as the “direct forerunners of the private seals which are so universal in the East at the present day.” A large number of scarabs have also been dug up by excavators which are mounted in metal bands (_fundae_), showing that they had served as bezels to rings, and many early rings with scarab bezels may be seen in our museums; these can hardly be regarded in any other light than as signet-rings.