Canopic jar

Last updated March 26, 2024

Canopic jars are containers that were used by the ancient Egyptians during the mummification process, to store and preserve the viscera of their owner for the afterlife. The earliest and most common versions were made from stone, but later styles were carved from wood.^[1] The ritual use of the jars dates back as far as the Old Kingdom and stayed in practice until the Late Period or the Ptolemaic Period, by which time the viscera were simply wrapped and placed with the body.^[2] Canopic jars of the Old Kingdom were rarely inscribed and had a plain lid, but by the Middle Kingdom inscriptions became more usual, and the lids were often in the form of human heads. By the Nineteenth Dynasty each of the four lids depicted one of the four sons of Horus, actings as guardians for the respective organ in their jar.

Etymology

The term canopic reflects the mistaken association by early Egyptologists with the Greek legend of Canopus – the boat captain of Menelaus on the voyage to Troy – "who was buried at Canopus in the Delta where he was worshipped in the form of a jar".^[3] In alternative versions, the name derives from the location Canopus (now Abukir) in the western Nile Delta near Alexandria, where human-headed jars were worshipped as personifications of the god Osiris.^[4]

Design

Canopic jars are v-shaped vessels that are hollowed out in the middle and topped with either plain or iconographic stoppers. They ranged in heights from about 14 cm - 50 cm (including the lid), and in diameters anywhere from 6 cm - 20 cm.^[5]^[6] The most common materials used to make the jars include wood, limestone, faience, and clay, and the design was occasionally accompanied by painted on facial features, names of the deceased or the gods, and/or burial spells. Early canopic jars were placed inside a canopic chest and buried in tombs together with the sarcophagus of the dead.^[7] Later, they were sometimes arranged in rows beneath the bier, or at the four corners of the chamber.^[7]

The original style of the jars from the Old Kingdom included a plain, round stopper, while the more typical stoppers in the shape of human heads were not seen until the First Intermediate Period.^[8] The human heads were the iconized representations of the Sons of Horus in their human form and were the predominant styling for the jars through ancient Egypt until the New Kingdom in Nineteenth Dynasty, in which the style transitioned to the more well-known depiction of the animal heads.^[9] Many higher-quality sets from this period were crafted from minerals such as alabaster, aragonite, calcareous stone, and blue or green glazed porcelain.^[10]

Purpose

The practice of evisceration began early in the Old Kingdom, but the specific use of the jars as storage for the organs was not well established until the First Intermediate Period. At the time of mummification, the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines were removed from the corpse to prevent them from eating away at the rest of the body. Each organ was salted in natron and placed individually into one of the four canopic jars.^[4] (There was no jar for the heart: the Egyptians believed it to be the seat of the soul, and so it was left inside the body.^{[n 1]})

Canopic jars from the Old Kingdom were found empty and damaged, even in undisturbed tombs, suggesting that they were part of the burial ritual rather than being used to hold the organs.^[12] The Third Intermediate Period and beyond adopted a similar practice, placing much smaller dummy jars in the tombs without including the organs. Improved embalming techniques allowed the viscera to remain in the body; the traditional jars remained a feature of tombs, but were no longer hollowed out for storing the organs.^[13]

Religious Significance

Each of Horus's sons were responsible for protecting a particular organ, was himself protected by a companion goddess, and represented a cardinal direction:^[14]

Hapi: the baboon-headed god representing the North was protected by the goddess Nephthys and was assinged to the lungs;
Duamutef: the jackal-headed god representing the East was protected by the goddess Neith and was assigned to the stomach;
Imseti: the human-headed god representing the South was protected by the goddess Isis and was assigned to the liver;
Qebehsenuef: the falcon-headed god representing the West was protected by the goddess Serket and was assigned to the intestines.^[15]

Additional Information

In 2020, excavations at Saqqara showed that a woman called Didibastet, whose 2,600-year-old undisturbed tomb was discovered behind a stone wall, was entombed with six canopic jars instead of the traditional four. A CT scan revealed that the jars contain human tissue, suggesting that Didibastet's mummification was possibly the result of a specific request.

Gallery

Canopic jars of Tutankhamun; 1333–1323 BC; alabaster; total height: 85.5 cm; Egyptian Museum (Cairo)
Canopic jars of Ruiu; 1504–1447 BC; painted pottery; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
Hieroglyphs for the four sons of Horus used on an Egyptian canopic jar

Notes

↑ In the afterlife, it was believed, the heart would be weighed against the feather of Ma'at (truth) by the god Anubis.^[11] If it was too heavy from bad deeds it would be fed to a monster, Ammit, that was believed to be part lion, part hippopotamus, and part crocodile.

Related Research Articles

Anubis, also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian, is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head.

Osiris is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother Set cut him up into pieces after killing him, Osiris' wife Isis found all the pieces and wrapped his body up, enabling him to return to life. Osiris was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Horus, also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history, and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. These various forms may be different manifestations of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with a falcon head.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nut (goddess)</span> Egyptian goddess of the sky

Nut, also known by various other transcriptions, is the goddess of the sky, stars, cosmos, mothers, astronomy, and the universe in the ancient Egyptian religion. She was seen as a star-covered nude woman arching over the Earth, or as a cow. She was depicted wearing the water-pot sign (nw) that identifies her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neith</span> Ancient Egyptian goddess

Neith was an early ancient Egyptian deity. She was said to be the first and the prime creator, who created the universe and all it contains, and that she governs how it functions. She was the goddess of the cosmos, fate, wisdom, water, rivers, mothers, childbirth, hunting, weaving, and war.

Sobek was an ancient Egyptian deity with a complex and elastic history and nature. He is associated with the Nile crocodile or the West African crocodile and is represented either in its form or as a human with a crocodile head. Sobek was also associated with pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess, but served additionally as a protective deity with apotropaic qualities, invoked especially for protection against the dangers presented by the Nile. Sobek has been famed for having been revered by the first female Pharaoh by the Nebty name Sat-Sekhem-Nebet-Tawy Sobekneferu, present both in the female Pharaoh's nomen, Sobekneferu, and her praenomen Kasobekre.

The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals included mummifying the body, casting magic spells, and burials with specific grave goods thought to be needed in the afterlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art of ancient Egypt</span> Art produced by the Ancient Egyptian civilization

Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media. It was a conservative tradition whose style changed very little over time. Much of the surviving examples comes from tombs and monuments, giving insight into the ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs.

The four sons of Horus were a group of four deities in ancient Egyptian religion who were believed to protect deceased people in the afterlife. Beginning in the First Intermediate Period of Egyptian history, Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef were especially connected with the four canopic jars that housed the internal organs that were removed from the body of the deceased during the process of mummification. Most commonly, Imsety protected the liver, Hapy the lungs, Duamutef the stomach, and Qebehsenuef the intestines, but this pattern often varied. The canopic jars were given lids that represented the heads of the sons of Horus. Although they were originally portrayed as humans, in the latter part of the New Kingdom, they took on their most distinctive iconography, in which Imsety is portrayed as a human, Hapy as a baboon, Duamutef as a jackal, and Qebehsenuef as a falcon. The four sons were also linked with stars in the sky, with regions of Egypt, and with the cardinal directions.

Canopic chests are cases used by ancient Egyptians to contain the internal organs removed during the process of mummification. Once canopic jars began to be used in the late Fourth Dynasty, the jars were placed within canopic chests. Although the first proven canopic burials date from the Fourth Dynasty reign of Sneferu, there is evidence to suggest that there were canopic installations at Saqqara dating from the Second Dynasty.

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Animal mummification was common in ancient Egypt. Animals were an important part of Egyptian culture, not only in their role as food and pets, but also for religious reasons. Many different types of animals were mummified, typically for four main purposes: to allow people's beloved pets to go on to the afterlife, to provide food in the afterlife, to act as offerings to a particular god, and because some were seen as physical manifestations of specific deities that the Egyptians worshipped. Bastet, the cat goddess, is an example of one such deity. In 1888, an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near Istabl Antar discovered a mass grave of felines, ancient cats that were mummified and buried in pits at great numbers.

Ranefer was a prince of ancient Egypt during the 4th Dynasty.

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"You will enter the house of hearts, the place which is full of hearts. You will take the one that is yours and put it in its place, without your hand being hindered. Your foot will not be stopped from walking. You will not walk upside down. You will walk upright."

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Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs were centered around a variety of complex rituals that were influenced by many aspects of Egyptian culture. Religion was a major contributor, since it was an important social practice that bound all Egyptians together. For instance, many of the Egyptian gods played roles in guiding the souls of the dead through the afterlife. With the evolution of writing, religious ideals were recorded and quickly spread throughout the Egyptian community. The solidification and commencement of these doctrines were formed in the creation of afterlife texts which illustrated and explained what the dead would need to know in order to complete the journey safely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomb of Hetepheres I</span> Ancient Egyptian shaft tomb at Giza

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References

↑ Shaw and Nicholson, p. 59
↑ Spencer, p. 115
↑ David, p. 152
1 2 Strudwick, Helen (2006). The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. pp. 184–185. ISBN 978-1-4351-4654-9.
↑ Elkrim, Abd; Gamil, Ehab (January 1, 2024). "Three Canopic Jars from El-Matariya in the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM 4964, 4967, 19335)". Shedet. 12 (12): 213–243. doi: 10.21608/shedet.2023.174603.1153 . ISSN 2356-8704.
↑ Laemmel, p. 153-175.
1 2 Budge, p. 240
↑ Shaw and Nicholson, p. 59
↑ Shaw and Nicholson, p. 60
↑ Budge, p. 240
↑ Weighing Of The Heart Scene Archived 2013-12-17 at the Wayback Machine , Swansea University: W1912, accessed 18 November 2011
↑ Lucie Jirásková: Damage and repairs of the Old Kingdom canopic jars – the case at Abusir. In: Prague Egyptological Studies. 15, 2015, ISSN 1214-3189, pp. 76–85, (online).
↑ "Canopic Jars", Archived 2013-01-18 at the Wayback Machine Digital Egypt for Universities, University College London, accessed 18 November 2011
↑ Murray, p. 123
↑ Gadalla, p. 78

Bibliography

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Gadalla, Moustafa (2001). Egyptian Divinities – The All who are The One . Greensboro, N.C.: Tehuti Research Foundation. ISBN 1-931446-04-0.
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Spencer, A. Jeffrey, ed. (2007). The British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 978-0-7141-1975-5.
Laemmel, Sabine. "Clay Canopic Jars: An Example from TT23 and Its Typological and Historical Context." And the Earth ıs Joyous, Essays in Honour of Galina A. Belova,(Eds. SV Ivanov-EG Tolmacheva), CES RAS (2015): 153-175.
Elkrim, Abd; Gamil, Ehab (January 1, 2024). "Three Canopic Jars from El-Matariya in the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM 4964, 4967, 19335)". Shedet. 12 (12): 213–243. doi:10.21608/shedet.2023.174603.1153. ISSN 2356-8704.