<em>Heart Scarab of the Divine Father Hori</em>, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Stone, 2 5/16 × 1 15/16 × 9/16 in. (5.8 × 4.9 × 1.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.479E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.479E_top_PS20.jpg)

Heart Scarab of the Divine Father Hori, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Stone, 2 5/16 × 1 15/16 × 9/16 in. (5.8 × 4.9 × 1.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.479E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.479E_top_PS20.jpg)

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Heart Scarab of the Divine Father Hori

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

Amulets

In the New Kingdom, amulets represented magic in miniature form.

At that time, the Egyptians frequently wore amulets proclaiming their devotion to the cult of major deities such as Thoth, god of wisdom, or Hathor, an ancient goddess associated with music and love. These charms were intended to provide protection from specific dangers. Amulets of birth-gods, for example, were believed to protect women during pregnancy and childbirth and to watch over a newborn in the first years of life.

In the Eighteenth Dynasty, certain amulets began to be placed within mummy bandages to guarantee life after death. The most common included wedjat-eyes, signifying the restoration of wholeness; tyt-amulets, emblems of the goddess Isis, who restored her dead husband Osiris to life; and flowers, traditional symbols of fertility. Beads inscribed with a person’s name ensured that the memory of the individual would survive throughout eternity.

So-called heart scarabs, known since the Thirteenth Dynasty, are frequently found on New Kingdom mummies. The Egyptians believed that a deceased person’s fate would be determined by weighing his or her heart against the “Feather of Truth” on a divine balance. Texts carved on heart scarabs prevented the deceased’s heart from revealing anything negative during the weighing ritual.

MEDIUM Stone

Place Made: Egypt

DATES ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 18 to Dynasty 20

PERIOD New Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 2 5/16 × 1 15/16 × 9/16 in. (5.8 × 4.9 × 1.5 cm) (show scale)

INSCRIPTIONS The prophet of Ptah, hebis (?), deceased, he says: O my heart of my mother, O my heart of my mother, O my breast of my upbringing, stand not up against me as a witness, confront me not in the assembly of judges, set not their enmity against me before the guardian of the scales. Thou art my ka which is in my body, the Khnum who prospere th my limbs. Go thou forth to good, make preparation for us then(?), cause not my name to stink for the nobles who make men into heaps. Good for us,good for the hearer, joy to the judge. Speak not lies against me beside the god. Behold what thou discernest is the Osiris".

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 37.479E

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Dark green stone heart amulet inscribed for the “Divine Father, Hori(?)”. On the top surface of the projection from the top of the heart. Not pierced. The piece is inscribed in eleven lines in two places. The rear surface of the heart is flat. It is on this surface that are inscribed ten lines of text. The separate one line of the text: “The Divine Father Hori (?), son of the Prophet of Ptah”. The larger text she read as “the Prophet of Ptah, hebis?, deceased, he says: O my heart of my mother, O my heart of my mother, O my breast of my upbringing, stand not up against me as a witness, confront me not in the assembly of judges, set not their enmity against me before the guardian of the scales. Thou art my ka which is in my body, the Khnum who prospere th my limbs. Go thou forth to good, make preparation for us then (?), cause not my name to stink for the nobles who make men into heaps. Good for us, good for the hearer, joy to the judge. Speak not lies against me beside the god. Behold what thou discernest is the Osiris.” Condition: Small chips: otherwise good.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

CAPTION Heart Scarab of the Divine Father Hori, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Stone, 2 5/16 × 1 15/16 × 9/16 in. (5.8 × 4.9 × 1.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.479E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.479E_top_PS20.jpg)

IMAGE top, 37.479E_top_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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