Canopic jar with a human-headed lid

Unknown

664–525 B.C. · Travertine (Egyptian alabaster) · Egyptian Art

Canopic jars were made to contain the embalmed viscera removed from the body in the process of mummification. The organs were placed under the protection of the Four Sons of Horus, whose heads form the lids of the jars: Hapy (baboon-headed), Imsety (human-headed), Duamutef (jackal-headed), and Qebehsenuef (falcon-headed). In turn these gods were under the protection of the goddesses Nephthys, Isis, Neith, and Selket, respectively, as the inscriptions on the jars state. This jar was under the protection of Imsety and Isis and would probably have contained the liver.

Artist

Unknown

Date

664–525 B.C.

Medium

Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915