The scarab beetle, which rolls balls of dung, was linked by the Egyptians with the god Khepri, who pushed the sun across the sky and embodied its daily rebirth. Small scarab-shaped amulets and seals were made in enormous numbers from the Middle Kingdom onward, in steatite, faience and semiprecious stones.
Their flat undersides were carved with names, titles, protective symbols or short wishes, and they were used as seals, worn as jewelry, and placed with the dead.