PRIFYSGOL ABERTAWE,
SWANSEA UNIVERSITY.
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Weighing Of The Heart Scene
This scene comes from a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead which was made
for Ani, c.1250 B.C.(19th Dynasty). Ani was the Royal Scribe, Accounting Scribe for Divine Offerings of all the gods, Overseer of the Granaries of the Lords of Tawer.
The original papyrus is now in the British Museum (BM 10470).
Here you can see Ani on the far left watching while his heart is weighed against an
ostrich feather representing Maat. Anubis is checking the scales while Thoth writes
down the result. Ammit who is part lion, part hippopotamus and part crocodile waits in to see if a meal will be on offer (the heart would be eaten if the dead person
was found wanting). At the top are gods and goddesses witnessing the judgment.
In the actual Book of the Dead text there is no mention of the weighing of the heart as such. Instead there is a long list of ‘negative confessions’ Extracts are given here:
Hail to you, great Lord of Justice!...I know the names of the forty-two gods of those who are with
you in the Hall of Justice, who live on those who cherish evil and who gulp down their blood on that
day of reckoning of characters in the presence of Wennefer. Behold the double son of the Songstress;
Lord of Truth is your name. Behold I have come to you, I have brought you truth, I have repelled
falsehood for you. I have not done falsehood against men, I have not impoverished my associates,
I have done no wrong in the Place of Truth, I have not learnt that which is not, I have done no evil,
I have not daily made labour in excess of what was due to be done for me, my name has not reached
the offices of those who control slaves, I have not deprived the orphan of his property, I have not done
what the gods detest....
Spell 30B of the Book of the Dead also concerns judgement in the afterlife in that it is a plea to the heart not to say negative things about the deceased.
Egypt Centre has a version of the weighing
of the heart scene on a 21st Dynasty Coffin.
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