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Roll Overs:
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Libyan Desert Glass. 300 grams.
Desert Glass
FC Meteorite House writes:
Carved in the tradition of the ancient Egypt heart scarabs.
The scarab rolling his ball of dung like the sun rolls across the firmament is the attribute of Khepri, the god of the rising sun, who often is depicted in his anthropomorphic guise with a scarab as head. The sometimes sudden and numerous appearance of these beetles, made the Egyptians believe, that they were created ex nihilo and without siring.
Therefore the scarab symbolizes transformation. In bandaging the corpse carved scarabs were wrapped in on the breast over the place of the heart. On the flat bottom side was engraved a spell from the Book of the Dead (a standard burial object too, a kind of a travel guide for the other world), asking the heart not to testify against the deceased, when it will be put in the scale pan when the good deeds would be weighed off against the bad ones during the judgment in front of Osiris.
Prominent is the large scarab in the pectoral funeral jewelery of Tutankhamun (1332 – 1323 B.C.) in the Egypt Museum of Cairo, which was originally thought to be a chalcedony, until in 1996 by chance an Italian tourist and impact researcher assumed that the scarab could consist of Libyan desert glass, which was finally approved in 1998.
More info here
Click to view larger photos #1 #2
Contact us at info@meteoritenhaus.de
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Muhammad S.M. Shamseldean (SHAMS)- From Egypt
1/27/2017 5:15:27 PM |
Fantastic piece of history. I have seen it in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. In 1996, the Italian mineralogist Vincenzo de Michele spotted an unusual yellow-green gem in the middle of another one of Tutankhamun's necklaces. Working with Egyptian geologist Dr. Aly Barakat, they traced its origins to unexplained chunks of green glass found scattered in the sand in a remote region of the Sahara Desert near Libya. It turned out to be from a meteor explosion about 26 million years ago, the heat melted the sand to make a green desert glass called the "Libyan desert glass". If anyone is interested in the photo of this necklace. I have a nice photo. My email is: solarocks@yahoo.com. |
MexicoDoug
1/27/2017 12:00:37 PM |
Great classic! The description suggests that scarabs were placed over the heart so that it would not testify against the deceased, and mentions King Tutankhamun's scarab, similar to the wonderful MPOD carving. Interestingly, Tutankhamun's heart had apparently been removed by those preparing his body for these rites, so the scarab might not have been necessary in his particular breastplate specifically for that religious belief. |
Matthias
1/27/2017 4:48:41 AM |
I like the LDG in general, and I like the scarabs too. And this is not only a big one indeed, made of fine quality LDG, but also very well carved: it has a good sculptural power and energy. |
John Hope
1/27/2017 1:09:17 AM |
One very,very special piece.Thanks for the photo's. |
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