People have debated what the Island was . . . a real place, a space ship, a parallel dimension or hell.
But the above cartouche explains the island. It alone can unravel the unspoken mystery of the island.
I have translated the symbols around the cartouche. It depicts the relationship between two entities. It tells The Story of the Island.
Foremost, it shows the Egyptian god of the underworld, Anubis, summoning a monstrous figure which represents another Egyptian entity, Ammit. In Egyptian mythology, this makes perfect sense. Anubis was the god of the underworld, who protected souls on their passage toward the afterlife. Ammit was "the devourer" of souls. Ammit was associated with the god, Tawaret, the statue for which Jacob lived in on the beach. The Egyptians believed that once a person died, a soul needed to pass through seven gates in order to get to the afterlife. The passage from their tomb to the afterlife was through a duality called Duat which was connected by the Nun, the waters of the primordial abyss. In this place, spirits were not evil but under the control of the gods. The Duat served as the residence of underworld gods like Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horace, Hathor and Ma'at. The souls would pass through the Duat which was a place were souls were not condemned but tested and judged by the gods. The Book of the Dead set forth "rules" of passage onto the afterlife for a soul to navigate through the gates guarded by human form spirits.
Anubis was a protector or guardian of the souls in their passage toward the afterlife. If a soul at judgment did not pass the weighing of the heart test, then that soul would be devoured by Ammit, which meant that the soul would never pass on to the afterlife (it would "die a second time") and the condemned soul would remain restless forever (i.e., the whispers).
Second, the stone carving specifically shows the summoning of Ammit. Ammit arises from black smoke to form an "electric" looking demon. When we have seen the smoke monster, it contained electrical flashes as being some sort of electro-magnetic beast. Ammit was under the control of Anubis. So this means that the smoke monster was not an indiscriminate killer.
Third, the translation of the hieroglyphs may be subject to some interpretation. But in the overall scheme of the stone's large representations, I believe the symbols mean, from left to right:
PROTECT ETERNITY
RISE TO SEE EVIL (the message under the figures)
DEATH GATHERS ETERNAL EVIL
Fourth, the message seems clear. Once Anubis, the guardian of souls has final judgment, he summons Ammit to rise to find the evil soul and devour it.
So why is this stone relief so important in the LOST story. As referenced themes of Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz state, there is a man behind the story engine curtain. The reveal of the LOST man behind the curtain is extrapolated from the church scene in The End: a clear reference that all the characters are dead, waiting for the final journey into the afterlife. This sideways way station is symbolic of reaching heaven's gate or the final passage way in Egyptian mythology.
In the Egyptian passage to the afterlife, a soul would encounter tests, spells, magic, fear and danger just like all the characters did on the island. The island was a modernized representation of the ancient Egyptian underworld.
It would then appear that Crazy Mother was the representation of Tawaret. Before Claudia's ship came to the island, other earlier people constructed a statue to worship Tawaret. But for some reason, Crazy Mother stopped guarding them - - - and allowed the smoke monster to kill them off. This would be consistent with the Roman villagers being killed in a smokey like attack after Crazy Mother argued with MIB.
From that point on, Jacob assumed the role of Anubis. MIB's soul, which was "evil" by killing Crazy Mother, was devoured by the smoke monster, who retained MIB's thoughts, memories and desires. But being Ammit, it remained under the control of Jacob, the guardian of the island.
As the ancient Egyptian religious cults declined, one could say that the gods lost their power relative to loss of their worshippers. Gods, especially those in the underworld, may have become despondent, tired and less important. These gods may have become as trapped in the abyss as the devoured souls. These gods may have sought their own passage to the afterlife.
But it just as likely that once Jack "dies" in the bamboo forest next to Vincent, that the island would continue to reboot the Egyptian underworld rites since we really do not know for sure whether the immortal Jacob is really dead and gone, or whether the smoke monster's existence was terminated in the human representation of John Locke. But based upon the lies and manipulations of Jacob and Flocke, it is more likely than not that there "demise" was nothing more than a fiction to propel Jack to assume his leadership role in his final "test" before being judged as a soul who can move on in the afterlife.
So, in my view, the Island dynamic is a modern representation of ancient Egyptian death mythology. As such, it would explain most, if not all, of the story arcs, magical elements, science fiction and fantasy elements of the LOST story.
