Judgment of the Dead before Osiris (Book of the Dead)

The image is a black-and-white line illustration organized into registers. In the lower register, Osiris sits on a throne on the left, holding a crook and flail, with four minor deities standing on a lotus blossom before him. In the center, a scale balances the deceased's heart against a feather, monitored by the jackal-headed Anubis and the ibis-headed Thoth, who stands nearby recording the result. To the right of the scale stands Ammit, the crocodile-headed devourer of souls, while the deceased stands on the far right with hands raised in adoration. The top registers contain rows of seated divine figures and protective symbols, including scales and serpent forms.

This image illustrates the 'Psychostasia' or weighing of the heart, a central ritual in the Egyptian Book of the Dead required for the deceased to enter the afterlife. It represents the moral accounting of the soul before the tribunal of Osiris, a foundational belief in Ancient Egyptian funerary religion.