Heart Scarab
Place made:Egypt
Culture: Egyptian
Period: New Kingdom
Dynasty: Dynasty 19
Date: ca. 1295-1186 B.C.
Medium: Grey Steatite
Dimensions:
h. 2 3/16 in. (5.6 cm); w. 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm); d. 3/4 in. (1.9 cm)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase: Stark-Willson Collection
Object number: 86.138.617
Inscribed: Inscribed with six lines of text, underside: "An invocation by the Osiris, the Sedjem-Ash in the place of truth, ____ Ey, Justified." The remaining lines are an abbreviated version of the conventional heart scarab text from Deir el-Medina.
Six horizontal lines of text written right to left:
Line 1:
Dd-mdw.in wsir
Words spoken by the Osiris,
Line 2:
sDm-aS m st-mAat [N]
servant in the Place of Truth, [name],
Line 3:
mAa-xrw Dd.f ib.i
justified. He says: Oh my heart
Line 4:
n m(w)t ib.i sp-sn HAty
of my mother! Oh my heart! Oh my heart!
Line 5:
.i n xprw
My heart of different ages!
Line 6:
n aHaw iry
Do not rise up (against me).
This is an abbreviated version of the traditional spell found on heart scarabs, Book of Going Forth by Day (modern name - Book of the Dead) 30B.
Additional information in curatorial file [S. Schellinger 2018]
Provenance: by purchase, the Stark family, Orange, Texas, between 1927 and 1929; by bequest, the Nelda C. and H. J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, 1965; by purchase, the San Antonio Museum of Art with funding from Mr. and Mrs. Robert Willson, 1986
Label Text
Heart scarabs were placed over the mummy's heart. The underside was usually inscribed with a spell from the Book of the Dead invoking the heart not to betray the deceased at the final judgment. Protective wedjat eyes and heron-like benu birds, associated with rebirth, decorate the scarab's upper surface.
Scarabs, among the most popular amulets, took their form from the scarab beetle. For the ancient Egyptians, a dung ball pushed by a beetle called to mind the sun's movement across the sky. Scarab beetles laid their eggs in dung balls, and the emergence of young beetles from the sun-like ball led the Egyptians to associate scarabs with the sun god and rebirth.
(Allyson Walsh, 2014)
Scarabs, among the most popular amulets, took their form from the scarab beetle. For the ancient Egyptians, a dung ball pushed by a beetle called to mind the sun's movement across the sky. Scarab beetles laid their eggs in dung balls, and the emergence of young beetles from the sun-like ball led the Egyptians to associate scarabs with the sun god and rebirth.
(Allyson Walsh, 2014)
On view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
