canopic+jar

**Canopic Jars**

Like so many terms related to ancient Egypt, "canopic" derives from a misunderstanding. The ancient classical writers believed that the Greek hero, Kanopos, helmsman for Menelaeus, was worshiped at Canopus in the form of a jar. The very early Egyptologists saw a connection between that object and the unrelated visceral jars discovered in tombs, and began calling them "canopic." The name stuck and eventually was used to describe all kinds of receptacles intended to hold viscera removed during the mummification process.

Canopic jars were used by the Egyptians during mummification to store and preserve the viscera for the afterlife. They were commonly either carved from stone such as limestone, calicite, or alabaster, or were made of pottery, faience, silver, ivory, or wood. Sometimes the jars were gilded with gold. All the viscera were not kept in a single canopic jar, but rather each organ was placed in a jar of its own.

The Egyptians considered the heart to be the seat of the soul so it was left inside the body instead of being placed in a canopic jar. The canopic jars were marked with magical spells and were placed inside a small chest with four compartments, one for each jar, then buried in tombs together with the sarcophagus of the dead.

The jars were four in number, each charged with the safekeeping of particular human organs: the stomach, large and small intestines, lungs, gall bladder, and liver. Each of the four Sons of Horus and Isis was responsible for protecting a particular organ, and were themselves protected by companion goddesses from harm. Also known as the "Gods Who Lie Inside the Abdomen" they were:

Duamutef, the jackal-headed god of the East, whose jar contained the stomach and large intestines and was protected by the goddess Neith;

Hapy, the baboon-headed god of the North, whose jar contained the lungs and was protected by the goddess Nephthys;

Qebhsenuef, the falcon-headed god of the West, whose jar contained the small intestines and was protected by the goddess Selket;

Imsety, the human-headed god of the South, whose jar contained the liver and gall bladder and was protected by the goddess Isis.

The other organs, such as the kidneys, were considered useless and discarded, as was the brain.

At first, the internal organs of the mummy were placed into chests divided into four compartments. Later, clay or stone jars were used, each bearing the face of the deceased. Beginning during the New Kingdom, the jars became artful sculptures showing the protectors themselves.

In later periods embalming practices changed, and the preserved organs were returned to the body cavity, each with an amulet of its respective Son of Horus, made of faience, gold, silver, pottery, or wax. Similar figures of the four gods were also stitched onto the outside of wrapped mummy. However, a dummy set of Canopic jars was still included in the burial equipment.

Interestingly, the Sons of Horus continued to be depicted on funerary equipment into the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, and the last known instances are found as late as the 4th century C.E., well into the Christian era.

Magical Objects