Cleveland Museum of Art
Canopic Jar with Man's Head
- Date
- 664–525 BCE
- Medium
- travertine
- Culture
- Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 26
- Department
- Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 102369
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
In the process of mummification, the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines were removed, separately embalmed, and stored in specialized jars known as canopic jars (after a sailor in Greek mythology, who died at the town of Canopus in the Nile Delta and was worshipped there in the form of a human-headed jar). Each organ was identified with one of four funerary deities collectively known as the Sons of Horus: the liver with Imsety (man's head), the lungs with Hapy (baboon's head), the stomach with Duamutef (jackal's head), and the intestines with Qebehsenuef (falcon's head). It was their duty to protect the deceased and restore to him his body parts in the hereafter.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund
- Provenance
- Formerly in the collection of William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney, Didlington Hall, Norfolk; Amherst Sale, lot 297. Purchased through Howard Carter
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