Some of the Egyptian scarabs were evidently used as talismanic gifts from one friend to another. Two such scarabs are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One bears the inscription “May Ra grant you a happy New Year,” the text of the other reading as follows: “May your name be established, may you have a son,” and “May your house flourish every day.” It is a curious fact that the modern greeting “Happy New Year” was current in Egypt probably three thousand years ago.[171]
On the Egyptian inscribed scarabs used as signets were engraved many of the symbols to which a talismanic virtue was attributed. The uræus serpent, signifying death, is sometimes associated with the knot, the so-called ankh symbol, denoting life. Often the hieroglyph for nub, gold, appears; this symbol is a necklace with pendant beads, showing that gold beads must have been known in Egypt in the early days when the hieroglyph for gold was first used. All these symbolic figures, of which a great number occur, served to impart to the signet a sacred and auspicious quality which communicated itself to the wearer, and even to the impression made by the seal, this in its turn acquiring a certain magic force. Few of us would be willing to confess to a belief in the innate power of any symbol, but the suggestive power of a symbol is as real to-day as it ever was. Any object that evokes a high thought or serves to emphasize a profound conviction really possesses a kind of magical quality, since it is capable of causing an effect out of all proportion to its intrinsic worth or its material quality.
Many scarabs and signets exist made of the artificial cyanus, which was an imitation lapis-lazuli made in Egypt. This was an alkaline silicate, colored a deep blue with carbonate of copper. Often a wonderful translucent or opaque blue glass was used. The genuine lapis-lazuli was also used to a considerable extent for scarabs and cylinders, in Egypt and Assyria, and gems were also cut from it in imperial Roman times.[172] A notable instance of the use of lapis-lazuli in ancient Egypt was as the material for the image of Truth (Ma), which the Egyptian chief-justice wore on his neck, suspended from a golden chain.[173]
In Roman times some of the legionaries are said to have worn rings set with scarabs, for the reason that this figure was believed to impart great courage and vigor to the wearer.[174]
The Egyptian amulets of the earliest period, up to the XII dynasty (circa 2000 B.C.), differ considerably from those made and worn after the beginning of the XVIII dynasty (1580 B.C.). Those of the earlier period are not numerous and present but a small number of types, animal forms or the heads of animals constituting the most favored models. The precious stone materials are principally carnelian, beryl, and amethyst. After the close of the so-called Hyksos period, the age during which foreign kings ruled over Egypt, came the brilliant revival and development of Egyptian civilization that characterized the XVIII dynasty. Some of the old forms were entirely cast aside while others were greatly modified in form and significance, the animal forms losing much of their fetichistic quality and coming to be more and more regarded as images of the multifarious divinities worshipped in this later period. In many cases the animal type was entirely or partially discarded and the amulets figured the conventional types given to the various divinities. However, while some of these images were wholly human, many of them show a human body with an animal head. Various symbolic designs were also favored, one believed to signify the blood of Isis having the form of a knot or tie. A frog fashioned out of lapis-lazuli and having eyes of gold is one of these amulets of the XVIII dynasty or later.
An interesting Egyptian talisman in the Louvre is engraved with a design representing Thothmes II seizing a lion by the tail and raising the animal aloft; at the same time he brandishes in the other hand a club, with which he is about to dash out the lion’s brains. The Egyptian word quen, “strength,” is engraved beneath the design and indicates that the virtue of the talisman was to increase the strength and courage of the wearer, the inscription being a kind of perpetual invocation to the higher powers whose aid was sought.[175]
The children of Israel, when in the desert, were said to have engraved figures on carnelian, “just as seals are engraved.”[176] This statement, repeated by many early writers, may perhaps have arisen from an identification of carnelian with the first stone of the breastplate, the odem, unquestionably a red stone, and very possibly carnelian. There can be no doubt that this was one of the first stones used for ornamental purposes and for engraving, as a number of specimens have been preserved from early Egyptian times. Because of the cooling and calming effect exercised by carnelian upon the blood, if worn on the neck or on the finger, it was believed to still all angry passions.[177]
A class of amulets even older than the Egyptian scarabs is represented by the engraved Assyrio-Babylonian cylinders. There has been much discussion among scholars as to the original purpose for which these cylinders were made, some holding that they were exclusively employed as seals or signets, while others incline to the belief that many of them were intended only for use as amulets or talismans.
These cylinders are perforated and were worn suspended from the neck or wrist, as is most frequently the case with talismans, and the engraved designs often represent religious or mythological subjects, the accompanying inscription merely consisting of the names of the gods. Cylinders of this type could not have been used as personal signets, and it is quite possible that Dr. Wiedemann is right in supposing that their imprint on a document was considered to impart a certain mystic sanction to the agreement, and render the divinities or spirits accountable for the fulfilment of the contract.[178]
The oldest known form of seal is the cylinder. Babylonian and Assyrian cylinder-seals are known of a date as early as 4000 B.C. From the earliest period until 2500 B.C. they were made of black or green serpentine, conglomerate, diorite, and frequently of the central core of a large conch shell from the Persian Gulf. From 2500 B.C. to 500 B.C. the cylindrical form was prevalent, and the materials include a brick-red ferruginous quartz, red hematite (an iron ore), and chalcedony, a beautiful variety of the last-named stone known as sapphirine being sometimes used. On the cylinders produced from 4000 B.C. to 2500 B.C. the designs most frequently represent animal forms; on those dating from 2500 B.C. to 500 B.C. are generally inscribed five or six rows of cuneiform characters. Up to the last-named date the work was all done by the sapphire point, and not by the wheel, and it is not until the fifth century B.C. that wheel work is apparent in any Babylonian or Assyrian stone-engraving. In the course of the sixth century B.C. the cylindrical seals became less frequent, and the tall cone-like seals came into use.[179]