<em>Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Human)</em>, 664–525 B.C.E., or later. Limestone, 10 1/2 × Diam. 4 1/2 in. (26.7 × 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.896Ea-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.896Ea-b_front_PS1.jpg)

Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Human), 664–525 B.C.E., or later. Limestone, 10 1/2 × Diam. 4 1/2 in. (26.7 × 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.896Ea-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.896Ea-b_front_PS1.jpg)

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Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Human)

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Canopic jars first appeared in the tomb of Hetepheres, the mother of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid. They were intended to hold the separately mummified internal organs. The middle-class examples of canopic jars, which first appeared seven hundred years later, are often dummies like these, never hollowed out to hold the organs, but still included in the tomb. Canopic jars demonstrate the development of a custom at a royal cemetery that was then adopted in a cheaper form by the middle class.

MEDIUM Limestone

Place Made: Egypt

DATES 664–525 B.C.E., or later

DYNASTY Dynasty 26

PERIOD Late Period

DIMENSIONS 10 1/2 × Diam. 4 1/2 in. (26.7 × 11.4 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 37.896Ea-b

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION One limestone canopic jar (b) with human-headed stopper (a). The face is crudely modeled: the eyes are long and tilted. Belonging to a man named Hor, the vessel is decorated with a four column inscription framed within a rectangular panel. Frame and text are incised. Condition: Some black paint remains on the pupils, otherwise all the rest of the coloring is lost. Quite a number of calcareous deposits are found on the jar (b). Found with 37.894E-95E and 37.897E.

EXHIBITIONS

To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Human), 664–525 B.C.E., or later. Limestone, 10 1/2 × Diam. 4 1/2 in. (26.7 × 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.896Ea-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.896Ea-b_front_PS1.jpg)

IMAGE front, 37.896Ea-b_front_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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