Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Baboon)

664–404 B.C.E.

1 of 6

Object Label

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.

Caption

Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Baboon), 664–404 B.C.E.. Limestone, 9 3/4 x Diam. 4 3/4 in. (24.8 x 12.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.897Ea-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.897Ea-b_front_PS1.jpg)

Title

Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Baboon)

Date

664–404 B.C.E.

Dynasty

Dynasty 26 to Dynasty 26

Period

Late Period

Geography

Place made: Egypt

Medium

Limestone

Classification

Funerary Object

Dimensions

9 3/4 x Diam. 4 3/4 in. (24.8 x 12.1 cm)

Credit Line

Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

Accession Number

37.897Ea-b

Rights

Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

Have information?

Have information about an artwork? Contact us at

bkmcollections@brooklynmuseum.org.