Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) · scarab

Heart Scarab of Nefer

Source of record: Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

[Egypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18] The design features in these objects borrow various ancient Egyptian funerary elements. The scale illustrated on top of the Cartier vanity case refers to the scale used in Osiris’s final judgment of the deceased. Amulets like the heart scarab were essential to the mummification process. They were placed throughout the mummy’s wrappings to protect the deceased during their journey in the afterlife. These inspired the Dior brooch seen on the model here. The ancient Egyptians believed amulets carried spells and that some, like the heart scarab, could sway opinions during the final <br>judgement to help the deceased get to their version of heaven, called Iaru.

Connections

Deities Osiris

Cross-references (2)

  • Wikidata Q79501707 tier-1
  • CMA-id 102387 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian).
  • 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.