An Egyptian Diorite Heart Amulet, Late Period, ca. 664 - 332 BCE Architectural Among the domestic arts of

Among the domestic arts of ancient Egypt

Length: 12 1/4 inches (31 cm)

The NetherlandsArt Gallery of New South Wales

called a lotus by the Greeks and Romans

assembled in the 1950s

An Egyptian Diorite Heart Amulet, Late Period, ca. 664 - 332 BCE Architectural Among the domestic arts ofTo the Egyptians the heart was the most essential of organs, not because it pumped blood around the body it is unclear that they understood this function but because they believed it was the seat of intelligence, the originator of all feelings and actions, and the storehouse of memory. From the New Kingdom, the heart became one of the most important of all amulets and was set on every mummy until the end of the Pharaonic period, often in numbers and