Information on Canopic Jars
Canopic jars were used by ancient Egyptians during the rituals of the dead for those who were mummified, including pharaohs, their family members, priests, and nobility. The jars stored organs that had been taken from the body, and they corresponded to different Egyptian gods, whose heads and figures adorned the jars. The jars were then placed in a Canopic chest, all were stored together in the tomb. The earliest known Canopic chest is from the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, between 2,600 and 2,500 B.C.
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Purposes
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Ancient Egyptians believed that a dead person would need his organs in the afterlife. For this purpose, four major organs were taken out of the body during the mummification process, and stored in the Canopic jars. Each jar contained one organ; these were the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines. The heart was the home of the dead person's spirit and should stay with the body, they believed. The organs were wrapped in linen and put into the jars, and consecrated oil was poured into the jars. The jars were then sealed as part of the funerary rituals.
Design
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Canopic jars were wide-mouthed, to allow the placement of the organs inside, and 5 to 10 inches tall. They were made of clay, stone, wood or even gold, depending on the wealth of the dead person. The lids or stoppers on each of the four jars depicted gods, each of the four sons of Horus. The gods were painted, sculpted, or engraved on both the body of the jar and the lid. Through the dynasties of Egypt, the style of Canopic jar evolved from a plain ritual jar to an elaborately decorated tomb ornament.
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Heads
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Egyptian gods often had animal heads, linking them with totem or patron animals. The heads of the four sons of Horus were depicted as their animals on Canopic jars, as they each protected an organ: Imsety, with the face of a man, protected the liver; baboon-headed Hapi protected the lungs; Duamutef, with the head of a jackal, protected the stomach; and falcon-headed Qebehsenuef protected the intestines.
Gods
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The four minor gods who protected the organs in the Canopic jars were the sons of Horus, hawk-headed god of the sky and sun, who was the son of Isis and Osiris, rulers of the gods. In turn, his sons were protected by more powerful female gods. Isis protected Imsety, Nepthys protected Hapi, Neith protected Duamutef, and Serket protected Qebehsenuef. These goddesses were often painted or sculpted on chests or coffins placed at the four cardinal directions within the tomb.
Name Origin
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It's debated where the origin of the name Canopic to refer to these funerary jars began, and whether it is even ancient Egyptian in origin. Early Egyptologists might have named the jars so after the practices of the residents of Canopus, an ancient Egyptian city dedicated to Osiris, god of the dead. However, another theory suggests that Greek translation may be at fault for a mix-up in astral relationships leading to the name. The Egyptian mummification process took 70 days, the same length of time during which Sirius, the Dog Star, "dies," or dips below the horizon of Egyptian skies. It was historically thought that Osiris and Isis are closely linked to Sirius. But Canopus is the second-brightest star, more visible during that 70 days. Ancient Greek scholar Plutarch linked Osiris and Canopus in his writings, but later Greeks may have translated Canopus into Sirius, since in Greek, the word "Canopus" means "eye of the dog."
Dummy Jars
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In the New Kingdom Late Period from 660 to 330 B.C., around the 21st Dynasty, organs removed from the mummified person's body were no longer placed in Canopic jars. They were wrapped in linen and replaced within the body. Sometimes the organs were placed in the sarcophagus but not within the body. The jars continued to be carved, decorated with the gods' heads, and placed within the tomb, but they were often "dummy" jars, solid instead of hollow.
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References
- Photo Credit egyptian hieroglyphics image by Albo from Fotolia.com
