Fleming, S.J., B. Fishman, D. O'Connor, and D. Silverman, 1980: The Egyptian Mummy: Secrets and Science, plates 102–5. University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia.

The tomb of Hapi-Men was excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1902, in cemetery G at Abydos. His body was laid in a stone sarcophagus of human form, on the front of which was an inscription that identified him as "... the third priest of Mut ... the Priest if Horus, the Osiris Hapi-Men, true of voice...." This sarcophagus lay within another stone one of rectangular form, but tomb robbers still managed to broach the burial and tear open Hapi-Men's mummified remains at the chest. Most likely they were able to wrench out a precious metal heart scarab; the remains of the wire that once held it in place is now coiled up at the side of the neck.

For more information of Egyptian mummification practices, see The Egyptian Mummy: Secrets and Science.

Left: The mummy of Hapi-Men
Ptolemaic, circa 3rd century B.C.
Inv. E16220

Above: Lateral x-ray of Hapi-Men's body
Courtesy: Radiology Department, HUP

Radiography shows that there were many other amulets laid within Hapi-Men's mummy wrappings, to protect him in his Afterlife. Most likely these amulets were made of faience or carnelian, though a large suite of amulets found on the Thirtieth Dynasty mummy of Djed-Hor (Abydos, tomb G50B) also included ones carved from microcline feldspar, red serpentine, haematite, and lapis lazuli.

Just as the amulets themselves had a special function in protection of a certain part of the deceased's body, so the material from which they were fashioned had a unique ritual purpose. Thus, Chapter 29 in the Egyptian Book of the Dead reads: "Another chapter of the heart (ib) upon carnelian. I am the Heron, the soul of Re', who conducts the glorious ones to the Duat."