Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · jewelry

Heart Amulet

Walters Art Museum (Egyptian), acc. 48.1657. Public domain (CC0). Copy archived by egyptianinscriptions.org with attribution; original at the holding institution.

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Accession: 48.1657
Dynasty: 26th-30th Dynasty
Date: 712-304 BCE (Late Period)
Date range: 712 BCE – 304 BCE
Materials: ['faience']
Repository: Walters Art Museum
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Cite & export

Walters Art Museum (Egyptian), Heart Amulet (48.1657). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/220125

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Description

<p>The ancient Egyptians regarded the heart as the source of human intellect, memory, conscience, and passions. Believed to embody one's true character, the heart was weighed on the balance of the Court of the Underworld to ascertain if the owner was worthy of being reborn in the afterlife. Heart amulets were part of the amulet set of the deceased beginning in the New Kingdom. The meaning of such heart amulets may be that of a substitute for the real heart. Several spells from "The Book of the Dead" deal with the danger that could arise if the heart was taken away from a person, or damaged; it was thought that such a separation could destroy his/her existence in the afterlife.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/48.1657' rel='external'>Heart Amulet</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>

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.

A turquoise faience amulet shaped like a stylized human heart with a rounded top and a narrow neck, shown front-on against a light background.

The object is a small, roughly symmetrical heart-shaped amulet with a rounded upper bulge, a constricted central neck, and a wider lower “heart” form. The surface is mottled with turquoise-blue glaze and darker corroded/abraded areas; several small pits and losses are visible, suggesting weathering or glaze spalling. No clear hieroglyphic, cartouches, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text can be read on the front; any markings are too indistinct to identify. No identifiable deity figure or clear inscriptional elements are visible beyond the heart form.

religious unknown poor

Materials faience (glazed ceramic)turquoise-blue glaze

Connections

Materials Faience Turquoise-Blue Glaze

Cross-references (2)

Walters-AccNum 48.1657 tier-2
Walters-id 7479 tier-2

About this record's data

From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (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.