Heart scarab

The heart scarab is an oval scarab artifact dating from ancient Egypt. Mostly an amulet, it also was used as jewelry, a memorializing artifact, or a grave good. The heart scarab was used by referring to Chapter 30 from the Book of the Dead and the weighing of the heart, being balanced by Maat, goddess of truth, justice, order, wisdom, and cosmic balance. The function of the heart scarab was to bind the heart to silence while it was being weighed in the underworld to ensure that the heart did not bear false witness against the deceased,^[1] or to act in its place if necessary. As in many religions, the individual had to show 'worthiness' to achieve the afterlife.

Engraved bottom of a Heart scarab, ca 1550-1186 B.C., New Kingdom, Dynasty 18–19, green stone, 2 5/16 in x 1 ½ in. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Top of a Heart scarab, ca 1550-1186 B.C., New Kingdom, Dynasty 18–19, green stone, 2 5/16 in x 1 ½ in x 1 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Heart scarab

The heart was extremely important to ancient Egyptians as the seat of intelligence and the storehouse of memory. It was the only organ left in place during mummification. Heart scarab amulets were meant as substitutes for the heart should the deceased be deprived of the organ in the afterlife.^[1] For example, when a person died, a heart scarab was often placed on their heart and bound underneath the bandages of the mummy. This was to ensure that it could not be physically removed from their person.^[2]

The significance of the heart scarab to the ancient Egyptians also stems from the religious importance of the scarab beetle, Scarabaeus sacer. The scarab beetle represented rebirth and creation. As the beetle larvae grow, they eat their way out of the balls of dung where they were laid by their mother and emerge. The Egyptians were unaware of this full reproductive cycle and saw this as the beetles apparently emerging from nothingness into new life, which aligns with their beliefs in an afterlife and rebirth^[2].

The amulets are described in the Book of the Dead to be made (per Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt)^[3] of a stone: nmhf, nemehef (not now identified); typically green stones, green jasper, serpentine, and basalt. Andrews continues to say they are in fact made from: green or dark-green materials, such as glazed steatite, schist, feldspar, hematite, and obsidian; also blue-glazed composition (faience), Egyptian blue, rock crystal, alabaster, or red jasper. Instead of the head of a scarab, heart scarabs had the head of a human and were often inscribed with chapter 30B of the Book of Going Forth by Day. Heart scarabs were also used in the design of pectorals, which were a rectangular chest ornament.^[4]

An alternate heart amulet represents similar ideas, but is made in the form of the heart as used by the Egyptian-language hieroglyph.

Heart scarabs throughout Egyptian history

The first known depiction of the heart amulet is found in the Sixteenth Dynasty or Seventeenth Dynasty circa 1690 B.C.,^[5] although it is known that the amulet was in use as early as the Eleventh Dynasty. Until the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the heart scarab had a strong connection to Theban royalty. The amulet then began appearing in the burials of other Egyptians.^[6] During the Twenty-first Dynasty, it stood as an important item of magical protection among the priesthood of Amun. After the Twenty-first Dynasty, the amulet is rarely depicted in human contexts and instead, is associated with specific divinities.^[7]

Heart scarabs went through significant modifications in their design over the course of history. For example, during the New Kingdom, heart scarabs were large, typically between four and five centimeters long.^[2] Then, in the Third Intermediate Period, a new variation of the heart scarab emerged. This new scarab was much smaller, at about two to four centimeters long.^[2] Due to their smaller size, these heart scarabs were not engraved. Unlike other heart scarabs that were placed directly above a person's heart and wrapped into their bandages, these new variations of heart scarabs were placed inside the person's chest cavity, alongside their true heart.^[2]

Ancient Egyptian amulets

Besides the personal use of the amulet in life, the body was often provided with amulets in burial, with more amulets implying more protection. The most common funerary amulets were the heart scarab, Wadjet Eye, Djed Pillar amulet, Wadj amulet, Tyet amulet, and the Golden-vulture collar (for goddess Mut). Amulet use changed greatly over the millenniums of Ancient Egypt.

The papyrus stem,

or Wadj amulet was made from 'green feldspar' as prescribed in Chapter 160, Chapter 159 from the Book of the Dead.^[8] The most common explanation for the amulet is that it provided 'eternal youth' to the deceased.

Gallery

Heart scarab, multiple types

• 
  Heart Scarab, inscribed with Chapter 30, Book of the Dead
• 
  Paser pylon pendant, with heart scarab motif
• 
  The Heart Scarab of Hatnefer, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Heart amulet

• 
  Egyptian amulet examples:
  Heart amulet, (row 6)

See also

• Egyptian hieroglyphs
• Heart Scarab of Hatnefer
• List of ancient Egyptian statuary with amulet necklaces
• Papyrus stem amulet
• Scarab (artifact)
• Stair-single (hieroglyph)