Let's Talk About Animals 4

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A fragment of a stone tablet with hieroglyphics and the partial image of the sun god. There is a beetle that is show partially on the head of the sun god.
Kheperi, the Rising Sun. 1314 BCE - 1197 BCE grayish limestone bas relief. 1968-7-1
Teacher Resource
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PDF icon Make Your Own Scarab Activity

1. Visual Thinking Strategy:

  • What do you see in the artworks?
  • What do you see that makes you say so?
  • What else do you notice? 

2. This artwork is over 3000 years old. Just by looking at this artwork, which ancient culture do you think it is from?

  • Egypt

3. Let’s take a closer look at the man on the left.

  • What are some of the things you noticed about this man?
  • How would you describe his outfit, hair, pose, and facial expression? 
  • What do these details suggest about him? 
  • This man is actually an Ancient Egyptian god. He is Kheperi, the god of the rising sun. 

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.