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EC610

Faience heart amulet

EC610

A faience heart amulet approximately 200mm long. Heart amulets become particularly popular from the New Kingdom. It is thus probable that ours dates to this period.

 

Early heart amulets seem to have been associated with service to the king. However, they were soon linked to Osiris and were central to the weighing of the heart myth. From the Late Period they are particularly associated with heart deities such as Horus the Child. In the late Period they appear to have been protective and linked with good health in everyday life and the afterlife.

The Egypt Centre also has a red jasper heart amulet (AB7) and a Rameside heart scarab or amulet (EC263).

Other amulets in the Egypt Centre

For more on the heart amulet see

Sousa, R. 2007. ‘The heart amulet in ancient Egypt: A typological study’. Goyon, J-C. and Cardin (eds.). Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists. Vol 1, 713-721. Leuvein, Paris, Dudley.

R. Sousa 2007. ‘The meaning of the Heart Amulets in Egyptian Art’. JARCE 43, 59-70.

Sousa, R. 2011. The Heart of Wisdom: Studies on the Heart Amulet in Ancient Egypt. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

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