Prionotheca coronata Olivier (Pimeliinae, Tenebrionidae) recognized as a new species of venerated beetles in the funerary cult of pre‐dynastic and archaic Egypt

Abstract

Abstract: The dusky, roundish and thorny beetle carcasses (figs 2, 3a‐d, 4a‐f) originating from the pre‐dynastic tomb B17 (˜4000‐3300 BC) of Diospolis parva (upper Egypt, fig. 1) and the archaic tomb 120 (˜2900 BC) of Tarkhan (lower Egypt, fig. 1) were identified as Prionotheca coronata Olivier 1795 (Pimeliinae, Tenebrionidae). This coleopteran species (fig. 4g) was named Radiant‐sun beetle due to the sun‐like appearance of its body trunk as well as its mythical significance. It is most likely that the chthonic behaviour as well as the spinous and armoured appearance of the Radiant‐sun beetle (fig. 4g) renders this species to be aposematic as well as easily remembered by an observer.Despite having been buried for ˜ 5.5 or ˜4.9 millennia respectively, the ancient beetle carcasses, kept in clay jars, were found to be remarkably well preserved (fig. 2). The beetle carcasses had been hollowed out, their head capsule, prothorax, legs and two posterior abdominal sternites had been skilfully removed by human hand, leaving empty cases with an anterior and a posterior opening (fig. 4c, d, table 1d). The exoskeletal beetle cases were kept as funerary offerings or were worn as pendants to serve as protective amulets, which were supposed to avert evil spirits from the deceased in their imaginary Underworld (d u a t).The ancient Egyptians were attentive observers of nature and knew the peculiarities of numerous vertebrate and arthropod species occurring in the Nile valley. The chthonic behaviour of Prionotheea coronata as well as the mythical concept of ‘sexless self‐generation of certain sacred animals emerging from the earth’ (cf. A m d u a t: 11th hour) could have motivated the pre‐historic and early dynastic Egyptians to worship the Radiant‐sun beetle as a divine symbol. The same view was also utilized in the adoration of the chthonic Scarabaeus (= Ateuchus) sacer Linné 1758 (Scarabaeinae, Lamellicornia, fig. 5) during the late Old Kingdom (˜2345‐2181 BC) and first Intermediate Period (˜2181‐2040 BC). It follows that Prionotheca coronata can be regarded as an ideological precursor of the Sacred scarab beetle in the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians concerning cosmogony and resurrection (cf. A m d u a t: 12th hour, Book of Gates: final scene and Book of the Earth).