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The Religious Use of Various Stones: Cheops

It is interesting to note the statements of Arab historians that the mummy of Cheops, the Pharaoh of the Great Pyramid, was decorated with a pectoral of precious stones. As the regal and priestly functions were united in the monarch, we may have here the first form of the high-priest's breastplate. The Arab historian Abd er-Rahman, writing in 829 A.D., states that Al Mamoun (813-833), son of Haroun-al-Raschid, entered the great pyramid and found the body of Cheops:

In a stone sarcophagus was a green stone statue of a man, like an emerald, containing a human body, covered with a sheet of fine gold ornamented with a great quantity of precious stones; on the breast was a priceless sword, on the head a ruby as large as a hen's egg, brilliant as a flame. I have seen the statue which contained the body; it was near the palace of Fostat. Essentially the same account is given by Ebub Abd el-Holem, another Arab, who says:

One saw beneath the summit of the pyramid a chamber with a hollow prison, in which was a statue of stone enclosing the body of a man, who had on the breast a pectoral of gold enriched by fine stones, and a sword of inestimable price, on the head a carbuncle the size of an egg, brilliant as the sun, on which were characters no man could read.

In the opinion of Mariette Bey these details are so circumstantial as to leave little doubt that the mummy of Cheops was found by Mamoun, but he believes that the body was covered with a gilt wrapper and that the stones were paste imitations. The ruby was probably the "uraeus," the sacred asp, emblem of royalty, and the wonderful sword may have been a sceptre or a poniard similar to those found in tombs of the eleventh dynasty and in that of Queen Aah-Hotep; the statue of green serpentine often occurs in later tombs. Should this view be correct, precious stones were imitated in glass at a very remote period.

An exceedingly fine specimen of ancient Egyptian goldsmith's work, now in the Louvre Museum, Paris, is a pendant terminating in a bull's head, each of the horns being tipped with a little ball. Above the double reins are four rondelles, one of gold, two of a material still undetermined; and one of lapis lazuli; the different parts of the pendant are connected by gold wire. Its most interesting and attractive feature, however, is a polished hexagonal amethyst, engraved on both faces. In each case the form of a priest is figured; in one he appears with his official staff or wand, and in the other he is represented as bearing an incenseburner and offering the mineral and vegetable sacrifices; an Oriental pearl is set above the engraved amethyst. The religious and sacrificial significance of this ornament, coupled with the costliness of the materials and the superior excellence of the workmanship, make it likely that we have here an amulet or talisman made for some Egyptian of very high rank.

St. Jerome (346?-420 A.D.), in his commentary on Isaiah (liv, 11, 12), alludes to the verses of Ezekiel describing the glories of the King of Tyre and the precious stones with which he was adorned. Evidently Jerome believed that this passage was to be taken symbolically, for he asks:

Who could have so little judgment and intelligence as to think that any Prince of Tyre whatever should be set in the Paradise of God, and have his place among the Cherubim, or could fancy that he dwelt with the glowing stones, which we should without doubt understand as the angels and the celestial virtues.

It would be both curious and interesting if we could trace a connection between the significance of the names of the Hebrew tribes and those of the breastplate gems assigned to the tribes. In ancient times names were much more significant than they are to-day, and the tribal names in particular possessed for the Hebrews a symbolic meaning, but this does not appear to have induced any marked tendency to connect the colors or the symbolic meanings of the different stones with the fame, or with the characteristics or fortunes of the several tribes. On the other hand, the foundation stones, as symbols of the Apostles, became a favorite theme with the early Christian writers. Possibly the neglect of ancient Hebrew writers to perform a similar task in connection with the breastplate stones might still be made good, even at this late date, and an effort in this direction might result in giving a wider range to the symbolic value of certain well-known gems.