Ancient Egypt: Dragonflies from the Old and Middle Kingdoms

While in Egypt, my friend Jenn Anderson spotted this perching dragonfly at the Tomb of Mereruka. His ancient tomb, or House of Eternity, dates to the Sixth Dynasty (2345-2333 BC) of the Old Kingdom. Mereuruka was a vizier, the highest official serving the Pharaoh Teti, and was married to the Pharaoh’s daughter. As a non-royal, his tomb stands out for its size and grandness. Jenn, who was on her second visit to her favorite country, spotted the dragonfly while strolling along a relief carved panel that depicted a hunting scene of men punting a papyrus raft along the Nile.

This dragonfly is perched on a reed with a frog dangerously close by. In Jenn’s photo, you can see an arm of a boatman, a locust, a fish and, I am guessing, a mongoose. Hunting in the marshy wetlands of the Nile teeming with wildlife was a favored pastime. “Paddling on light reed boats through the papyrus thickets, fishing and fowling, was for the the Egyptians a most desirable way to experience the richness and beauty of divine creation,” according to Dorothea Arnold, curator of Egyptian Art, in “An Egyptian Bestiary,” a publication of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Such scenes were carved with the intention of providing everything that would be needed in the afterlife. Perhaps this dragonfly, having hopefully evaded the frog’s long reach and appetite, would greet Mereruka in the next world.

Archaeological expeditions beginning in 1906 have made the Met’s Egyptian sections an eye-opening marvel to generations of art historians. Dragonfly amulets from the Middle Kingdom, were discovered during excavations at Lisht, a Twelfth Dynasty necropolis on the west bank of the Nile, south of Cairo.

The amulets dated to the Middle Kingdom, ca 2050-1650 B.C., a sort of golden age, with political stability, economic prosperity, and a resurgence of cultural activity in the creation of statuary and fantastic funerary monuments and pyramid complexes. The non-royal dead, like Mereruka, began to be buried with magic wands and rods, amulets of protective animals and fertility figures. Coffins in the shape of a body wrapped in linen wearing a beaded collar were first used at this time.

The dragonfly amulets included a dragonfly bead from a collar. They are made of shiny, bright blue faience, a glazed ceramic material made of silica, alkaline salts, lime and metallic turquoise colorant. “In Egypt, objects made with faience were considered magical, filled with the undying shimmer of the sun, and imbued with the powers of rebirth,” writes Met Curator Carolyn Riccardelli. Amulets found in the coffins were imbued with symbolic meanings and magical properties, such as ensuring the deceased a safe transition and a harmonious afterlife. Butterflies were profuse in the tombs, in faience, silver and gold amulets as well as on painted murals and carvings. A series of gold bracelets from Queen Hetepheres’ tomb bear inlaid butterflies or dragonflies. Please contact me if you have knowledge of the role of dragonflies in Egyptian mythology. Thanks Jenn, for leading me down this path!