The Egyptians always looked to nature to provide a model for their cosmic imaginings. The activities of the dung beetle provided an ideal allegory for the movement of the sun across the daytime sky.

The dung beetle laid its eggs in a ball of dung that it rolled across the ground of a burrow. Safely ensconced, the eggs would then be incubated by the warmth of the sun's rays. This imagery was irresistibleto ancient Egyptians: they saw in the life-cycle of the beetle a microcosm of the daily voyage of the sun emerging from the Duat to cross the daytime sky before sinking below the horizon again at sunset. There were additional aspects to the scarab beetle's symbolism. Inside the warm casing of each dung ball was an egg, which burst open to reveal a larva, causing Egyptians to believe that the insect had created itself. The creature's first flight was also woven into myth as the common motif of the sun god rising up into the sky. In the words of The Book of the Dead: "I have flown up like the primeval ones, I have become Khepri. . ." Thus the scarab beetle personified Khepri, the morning aspect of the sun god-and by extension the sun's (and the pharoah's) rebirth. Khperi is often pictured as a scarab sailing in a boat on Nun, the waters of chaos, or even as a human body with a scarab head. Scarabs were made in various materials-stone and glazed earthenware were especially common-and could have a purely ornamental function, apart from their amuletic properties. In the Middle Kingdom they were used as seals, and during the New Kingdom reign of Amenhotep III they served to record important events in the king's reign. Their flat undersides were inscribed with designs referring to a variety of subjects according to their purpose. Scarabs also played an important role as funerary equipment. Nearly always fashioned out of blue faience (glazed earthenware), funerary scarabs were large, winged amulet often attached to the surface of a mummy within the bead nets that covered its torso. Another type of scarab, known as the heart scarab, was inscribed with a chapter of The Book of the Deadand was embedded in the bandages of the mummy.