For the ancient Egyptians, death was not the absolute end of existence, but a dangerous, transformative pause before the ultimate journey. Their entire religious infrastructure—from the construction of monumental pyramids to the complex science of mummification—was engineered to secure safe passage into the Afterlife ( Duat ). At the absolute center of this spiritual journey sat a single, vital organ: the heart ( Ib ). While the brain was viewed as a useless organ and routinely discarded during