Heart amulet with human head

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This unusual looking amulet is a combination of a simplified heart and a human head. The heart, of red jasper, is depicted as a flat, oval object with slightly rounded front and back surfaces and a pointed bottom. It does not have side projections, which are known from other heart amulets that depict the organ more naturalistically. At the top is a small, carnelian human head, which was manufactured separately and attached to the heart. Details of the face, such as the nose, eyes, and mouth are carved, but mainly due to the amulet’s small size and the hardness of the material, they are not well defined. A long, striated, black wig made out of chlorite conceals the junction between the two parts. The amulet is pierced twice latitudinally. The top piercing runs through the head, and a second is positioned in the lower third of the amulet. These piercings were possibly intended to fasten the amulet onto the bandages of a mummy.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art