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19th Dynasty canopic jars of alabaster (Berlin)

Among the ancient Egyptians, canopic jars were covered funerary vases, intended to keep the viscera of mummified corpses. Jars were made from various materials, including alabaster, limestone, pottery, wood, and bronze. All the viscera were not kept in a single canopic jar, but rather each organ in its own.

In addition to hieroglyphics, figures of gods were often hand painted on the jars. These were the Four sons of Horus, the guardians of the organs^[1].

• Imsety (man-headed): liver
• Hapi (baboon-headed): lungs
• Duamutef (jackal-headed): stomach
• Qebehsenuef (falcon-headed): intestines

Alternatively, the jars themselves, or the jar lids, were made in the shape of the representative god.

The Egyptians considered the heart to be the seat of the soul, so it was the only organ not removed from the body. The brain was not preserved (it was held to be only responsible for producing mucus), but instead was liquefied and completely drained from the corpse through the nostrils.

Sometimes the covers of the jars were modelled after (or painted to resemble) the head of Anubis, the god of death/embalming. These vases have an elongated form, and surviving examples of them can be seen in museums. The canopic jars were buried in tombs together with the sarcophagus of the deceased, in order to preserve the integrity of the entire body after death (the viscera were extracted to prevent the putrefaction of the corpse). It was also done because it was believed the dead person would need their organs for the afterlife.

By the time of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, the use of canopic jars to hold organs had declined considerably, although the jars themselves continued to be placed in tombs, for their magical symbolism, or perhaps just for tradition's sake. These were often left empty or filled with mud and straw.

By extension, due to the similarity of their form, some Etruscan cinerary urns were also called canopic jars, made of clay or bronze, often put on the replica of a throne into the tombs, and with a male or female head modelled on them, representing the deceased's face with the handles having the form of arms.

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Canopic jars

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