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Marin
Northern California
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Philip Mitry
Many of our ancient Egyptian artifacts were acquired from Philip Mitry’s granddaughter. Philip Mitry was licensed to sell Egyptian antiquities in his bookstore in Cairo, Egypt, in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. His shop was directly across the street from the Shepheard’s Hotel, where many famous visitors stayed (the Hotel burned during the 1952 riots). Mitry, a recognized expert, was frequently visited by Egyptologists, historians, museum curators, and other authorities, and his Egyptian relics are in collections worldwide. In the 1950s, he legally brought his Egyptian antiquities to California. Most of the larger pieces were sold many years ago, but fortunately, much of his scarab collection remained.
Egyptian Scarabs
In ancient Egypt, the scarab symbolized and empowered resurrection, which occurred at sunrise. Ancient Egyptians believed similar-looking forms were often connected and that those connections were clues left by the gods to life’s meaning. Dung beetles, which inspired scarabs, were observed rolling and then burying balls of dung. This reminded ancient Egyptians of the sun rolling across the sky and then setting. The female beetle would deposit an egg in the middle of some of the dung balls before burying them, and when a new beetle ‘miraculously’ emerged from the ground, it came to symbolize sunrise and to empower resurrection.
Many amulets were strategically positioned under mummy wrappings to magically protect the body, which is why few of these scarabs are more than 1” long. Size was thought to have little relevance, in this case, because the amulets were all connected to the same gods.
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