The Weighing of the Heart Ceremony

‘Book of the Dead’, Papyrus of Ani (sheet 3): Ani’s Judgment: the scene is the Hall of Judgment. Centrally placed is a balance, holding in its two pans Ani’s heart (on the left) and a feather (on the right) representing Ma’at, the divine personification of truth and order. The crossbar of the balance hangs from a feather-shaped peg attached to the upright support, on the top of which squats a small baboon. This creature is a form of the god Thoth, who acts in a different form and with a different duty elsewhere in this “trial”. 

The god Anubis, here shown as a jackal-headed, human-bodied, kneeling deity, described as “he who is in the place of embalming,” holds the cord of the right-hand pan, and steadies the plumb bob of the balance. To the right of the balance stands Thoth, here in human form with ibis head; he is the scribe of the gods, and he holds a scribe’s palette and a reed brush, ready to note down the results of Ani’s interrogation. 

New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II, around 1250 BC. Now in the British Museum. EA 10470,3