Object M14090 is a heart scarab belonging to a man named Ramose which resides in the Liverpool Museum.

Heart scarabs were amulets designed to look like a scarab on the top and the shape of a heart on the bottom. It was placed among the mummy bandages or hung around the neck of the deceased.

This scarab is made from green serpentine and is inscribed with eleven lines of text. The text is taken from the Book of the Dead and is a type of prayer which asks that the heart of the deceased does not betray him when it is weighed.

The heart of the deceased was believed to be weighed against the feather of Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, and if it is found to be worthy, the deceased was granted passage to the afterlife. If it was not, the deceased’s heart would be eaten by Ammut, the Devourer, and the deceased would die a second death, never to return.