Heart Scarab with Scene of the Goddess Ma`at and a Phoenix
Description
Object Label: Living persons wore only one or a few amulets at a time, but mummies usually bear many amulets. The Ma’at amulet (no. 2) and heart scarabs (nos. 1, 3, 11), which occurred in many forms, guaranteed a successful judgment of the dead. The amulets of a hand (no. 8), lungs and a windpipe (no. 12), and wadjet-eyes (i.e., “healthy” eyes; no. 4) protected those parts of the body and also had connotations of resurrection and the unity or integrity of the mummy. The enigmatic aper amulet (no. 13) takes the form of the hieroglyph meaning “to be equipped,” perhaps in reference to the mummy’s preparation. The two crowns (nos. 5, 6) were symbols of power. The Heh insignia (no. 7), like the popular ankh-sign, denoted eternal life. Among the living, the frog (no. 9) and possibly also the hare (no. 10) suggested fertility. The amulets of the Four Sons of Horus (no. 15) perhaps served, as they did with canopic jars, to protect various organs of the body. Caption: Heart Scarab with Scene of the Goddess Ma`at and a Phoenix, ca. 893–868 B.C.E.. Egyptian blue (frit), traces of gold, 6 × 1 3/4 × 1 5/8 in. (15.2 × 4.4 × 4.1 cm) Weight: 0.1 lb. (41.95 g). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.226.22. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
An oval amuletic scarab/heart scarab with engraved scenes and hieroglyphic signs on a dark, stone-like surface.
The image shows a small, dark oval scarab/heart scarab with incised relief decoration. A central upright figure-like form with a surrounding frame or register sits above a dense band of hieroglyphs; additional short vertical and horizontal signs appear around the upper portion. No clear phoenix silhouette is distinguishable at this resolution, and the specific goddess Maʿat iconography cannot be confirmed reliably from the visible details. The upper field contains several grouped signs; the lower area is filled with a larger block of tightly spaced hieroglyphs. No legible Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible. The object surface appears matte and weathered with no obvious metal color in the photograph; any traces of gold or Egyptian blue are not clearly confirmable from the grayscale image alone.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 86.226.22 tier-2
- BKM-Object 4246 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.