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Weighing of the heart. In ancient Egypt, people believed that the heart is the seat of the soul and the origin of the channels to all other parts of the body, including arteries, veins, nerves, and tendons. The heart was also depicted as determining the fate of ancient Egyptians after they died.
The heart was extremely important to ancient Egyptians as the seat of intelligence and the storehouse of memory. It was the only organ left in place during mummification. Heart scarab amulets were meant as substitutes for the heart should the deceased be deprived of the organ in the afterlife. [ 1 ]
An important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the jb (ib), or heart. [18] In the Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was essential to surviving death in the nether world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor.
This detail scene from the Papyrus of Hunefer (c. 1375 BC) shows Hunefer's heart being weighed on the scale of Maat against the feather of truth, by the jackal-headed Anubis. The ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the gods, records the result. If his heart is lighter than the feather, Hunefer is allowed to pass into the afterlife. If not, he is eaten ...
The heart was the most significant internal organ to ancient Egyptians, as they believed it to be the center of intellect and the mind. Therefore, the heart was left inside the deceased's body during the mummification process, while the other viscera were removed for separate preservation. [ 13 ]
Ancient Egyptian civilizations held the belief that the soul was composed of several parts: the Ba, Ka, Ren, Sheut, and the Ib. Furthermore, the Ib was located in the heart, and considered the vital force that brought human beings to life.
Egyptian civilization was responsible for the advent of terms for external body parts, of all body parts practitioners were aware of, metu, understood to refer to the heart, was central to ancient understandings of anatomy within relevant areas of Egypt.
The ancient Egyptians seem to have known little about the kidneys and made the heart the meeting point of a number of vessels which carried all the fluids of the body—blood, tears, urine and semen. Mental disorders are detailed in a chapter of the papyrus called the Book of Hearts.