<em>Canopic Jar and Cover of Tjuli</em>, ca. 1279–1213 B.C.E. Egyptian alabaster (calcite), pigment
, 18 1/2 × 6 11/16 in. (47 × 17 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.30.1a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 48.30.1a-b_PS9.jpg)

Canopic Jar and Cover of Tjuli, ca. 1279–1213 B.C.E. Egyptian alabaster (calcite), pigment , 18 1/2 × 6 11/16 in. (47 × 17 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.30.1a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 48.30.1a-b_PS9.jpg)

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What organs are put in the Canopic jars?

The Canopic jars usually contained the liver, intestines, lungs, and stomach. The ancient Egyptians believed that these organs would be needed in the afterlife. The jars protected them so the deceased could bring them on their journey to the Afterlife.

What's this?

You're looking at a Canopic Jar that shows one of the four sons of Horus. The Canopic jars usually contained the liver, intestines, lungs, and stomach. The ancient Egyptians believed that these organs would be needed in the afterlife. The jars protected them so the deceased could bring them on their journey to the Afterlife.

Thanks bro.

You're welcome bro. Do you want to know more about the four sons of Horus?

Sure!

The four sons of Horus were four gods who guarded the internal organs of the deceased. From the end of the New Kingdom these four gods are usually represented by their heads only. Imsety has a human head and guards the liver; Hapy, who has a baboon head guards the lungs; Duamutef guards the stomach and has a jackal head; and finally Qebesenuef was the guardian of the intestines, with the head of a falcon.

Are there organs in these jars? Which one has the heart?

There are no organs in these jars right now. The actually heart didn't go in a jar, in a "proper" mummification, the heart was removed, mummified and put back in the chest because the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart did all your thinking and was the most important!

As far at these canopic jars go: the one with a human head held the liver, the jackal held the stomach, the baboon held the lungs, and the falcon held the intestines.

These are used for human organs?

Yes! They're called canopic jars. The one in front, with the falcon head, would have held the intestines. The falcon, here, represents a god named Qebehsenuef.

Which four gods are represented by the heads?

These jars in particular represent the four sons of Horus: Imsety has a human head and guards the liver; Hapy, who has a baboon head, guards the lungs; Duamutef guards the stomach and has a jackal head; and finally Qebesenuef was the guardian of the intestines, with the head of a falcon.

Thank you!

Was anything ever found in canopic jars?

Yes! Canopic jars are meant to hold the organs of the deceased. Imsety, with a human head, guards the liver; Duamutef, with the head of a jackal or dog, guards the stomach; Hapy, with the head of a baboon, guards the lungs; Qebesenuef, with the head of a falcon, guards the intestines

Thanks. I was thinking the very old organs could be analyzed biologically if any had been found!

Why are the 4 sons of Horus depicted as animals?

Like many Egyptian deities, the sons of Horus’s most recognizable forms are as humans with the heads of animals. Horus himself, like his son Qebehsenuef, is typically depicted with the head of a falcon.

Canopic Jar and Cover of Tjuli

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Funerary Gallery 3, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor

Priests separately mummified the stomach, liver, lungs, and intestines, to be placed in jars, in the most expensive method of mummification described by Herodotus. The practice of removing the organs and packing them separately declined in the Middle Kingdom and later, yet Egyptians still included canopic jars in burials. And while the covers of Middle Kingdom canopic jars all have human heads, by the New Kingdom the jars of the royal scribe of Ramesses II, named Tjuli, had human, baboon, jackal, and falcon heads.

MEDIUM Egyptian alabaster (calcite), pigment

Place Made: Saqqara, Egypt

DATES ca. 1279–1213 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 19

PERIOD New Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 18 1/2 × 6 11/16 in. (47 × 17 cm) mount (supported by plaicre): 19 × 7 × 7 in. (48.3 × 17.8 × 17.8 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 48.30.1a-b

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Funerary Gallery 3, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor

CAPTION Canopic Jar and Cover of Tjuli, ca. 1279–1213 B.C.E. Egyptian alabaster (calcite), pigment , 18 1/2 × 6 11/16 in. (47 × 17 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.30.1a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 48.30.1a-b_PS9.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 48.30.1a-b_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2020

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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