<em>Heart Scarab of Bapu</em>, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Jasper, 1 15/16 × 1 9/16 × 1 in. (4.9 × 4 × 2.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.480E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.480E_top_PS20.jpg)

Heart Scarab of Bapu, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Jasper, 1 15/16 × 1 9/16 × 1 in. (4.9 × 4 × 2.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.480E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.480E_top_PS20.jpg)

Heart Scarab of Bapu, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Jasper, 1 15/16 × 1 9/16 × 1 in. (4.9 × 4 × 2.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.480E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 37.480E_37.483E_GrpA_SL4.jpg)

Heart Scarab of Bapu, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Jasper, 1 15/16 × 1 9/16 × 1 in. (4.9 × 4 × 2.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.480E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.37.480E_37.479E_erg456.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Do you know what this says?

I don't have a full translation, but I can give you a general idea. Many inscriptions on objects like this were quite standardized.

This heart scarab belonged to a person named Bapu. It would have been buried with his mummy to assist in his journey to the afterlife. Inscriptions on heart scarabs are related to judgement and resurrection.

There was a fear that your heart might betray you to the gods, admitting that you had done wrong in your life and preventing you from gaining access to the afterlife. The scarab was basically a message to your heart.

Wow I would have never expected that.

Heart Scarab of Bapu

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 Jasper

Place Made: Egypt

DATES ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 18 to Dynasty 20

PERIOD New Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 1 15/16 × 1 9/16 × 1 in. (4.9 × 4 × 2.5 cm) (show scale)

INSCRIPTIONS Yes

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 37.480E

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Dark green jasper amulet in the form of a heart. Inscribed with eleven lines of text. At the top a flat projection of stone is pierced horizontally. Condition: Excellent.

EXHIBITIONS

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

CAPTION Heart Scarab of Bapu, ca. 1539–1075 B.C.E. Jasper, 1 15/16 × 1 9/16 × 1 in. (4.9 × 4 × 2.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.480E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.480E_top_PS20.jpg)

IMAGE top, 37.480E_top_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Do you know what this says?

I don't have a full translation, but I can give you a general idea. Many inscriptions on objects like this were quite standardized.

Wow I would have never expected that.