WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · jewelry
Heart Scarab of Hati-iay
Description
<p>During the process of mummification, amulets of different kinds were placed on the body or wrapped in the mummy bindings to protect the deceased from the dangers of the underworld. At the center of these arrangements of amulets was usually a "Heart Scarab", which contained a special spell related to the "Court of the Dead," a pectoral with a scarab centerpiece, or a winged scarab made of Egyptian faience (a glazed ceramic-like material). On its right wing the scarab displays the Benu-bird in a sacred boat. And on its left wing is the squatting figure of the god Osiris. The bottom inscription has the name and title of the owner and spell 30B of the Book of the Dead.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.30' rel='external'>Heart Scarab of Hati-iay</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.
Oval scarab-shaped plaque incised with dense lines of Egyptian hieroglyphs on a brownish stone surface with areas that appear metallic/gilded.
The image shows an oval, vertically oriented artifact with a scarab-like heart-scarab form (flat, rounded field) and the surface fully covered by incised Egyptian hieroglyphs in closely spaced horizontal registers. The characters are carved in a dark line against a lighter brown/tan background; some strokes/areas show lighter highlights that may correspond to surviving gilding. No clear cartouche, royal titulary, or single deity figure is legible at this resolution; the inscription content appears to be typical of heart-scarab spells (e.g., protective/afterlife formulæ) but specific names cannot be securely read. The back or attachment loop is not visible in this crop. Visible material therefore appears consistent with a stone core with possible traces of gold leaf. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is present.
hieroglyphic only
unclear
good
Materials
stone (quartzite, consistent with catalogue)traces of gold leaf (possible gilding/highlights)
Signs
Incised hieroglyphs in horizontal registers (specific signs not reliably readable) ×200
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
[Translation] Osiris, (the) military scribe Hati- / iay, the justified, he says: Heart (that I received) from mother, / heart (that I received) from mother, heart of different ages! Do not stand up against me as a witness; / do not contradict me in the court; do not be hostile / to me in the presence of the Keeper of the Balance. You are my Ka (life-force), / which is in my body, the creator, who makes whole my limbs. Go to / the place, which is prepared for me there. Do not make / my name stink to the councilors (judges), who make / people (mortals) to (renewed) beginners.
Connections
Deities
Osiris
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 42.30 tier-2
- Walters-id 19093 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
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.