
Kheperi, the Rising Sun. 1314 BCE - 1197 BCE grayish limestone bas relief. 1968-7-1
1. Visual Thinking Strategy:
2. This artwork is over 3000 years old. Just by looking at this artwork, which ancient culture do you think it is from?
3. Let’s take a closer look at the man on the left.
4. Can you try to make the pose he is making? This is a very typical pose in Egyptian art.
5. There’s something important on the man’s head, but only parts of it are visible. What do you think it is?
It’s a scarab beetle, also known as the dung beetle!
The Egyptians called the dung beetle “kheper,” and it became a symbol for Kheperi, the god of the rising sun.
They believed that the god Kheperi rolled the sun across the sky. They thought the beetle rolling a ball of dung looked like the god Kheperi rolling the sun.