Heart scarabs were popular amulets for the deceased. Ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was not only the center of life, but also the place where thinking, memory, and moral values were located.
In the final judgement – the “Weighing of the Heart” – Egyptians believed that their heart was weighed against Maat, the divine personification of truth, order, and justice. If the deceased had lived a righteous life they would beallowed to live on in the afterlife.
The flat underside of a heart scarab is commonly inscribed with the “Heart Scarab Spell” of the Book of the Dead. Here is an excerpt:
Formula for not allowing the heart of NN to be removed from him
My heart of my mother, my heart of my earthly being: Do not stand against me as witness beside the lords of the ritual .Do not say against me, he did do it, about my actions. Do not make a case against me beside the great god.
Hail my heart, Hail my heart! Tell my goodness to Ra, hand me to Nehebkau. See him, uniting the earth at the great one within.
May I endure on earth, not die in the west, and be a blessed spirit there!
New Kingdom, Egypt, L. 6.2 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10.130.1644, Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910
