Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Heart Scarab of the Noblewoman Nefruptah
Middle Kingdom
Not on view
This object is not part of The Met collection. It was in the Museum for a special exhibition and has been returned to the lender.
From the late Middle Kingdom onward, the heart played a central role in helping the deceased attain an afterlife. Scarab-shaped amulets with an original type of funerary text inscribed on the underside mark this new belief. They appeal to the owner’s heart not to bear witness to any wrongdoing during the divine judgment. The weighing of the heart, prominently depicted in later periods, is here already alluded to by the scale hieroglyph in line six, third from the left.
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