Flexer 1

Thomas Flexer

Rebecca Wang

CAMS 44H

15 December 2023

The Practical and Religious Significance of Canopic Jars in Egypt

For the layperson, Ancient Egypt often conjures images of pyramids and mummies, ideas

that have been taught since the earliest stages of education and represented in popular culture

through movies like “The Mummy.” However, this knowledge does not extend much further than

surface-level concepts like how mummies were wrapped in bandages or that the Egyptians

believed that they would go to an underworld after death. One aspect of the mummification

process that is often forgotten about in discussion is the use of canopic jars by Egyptian

embalmers. As defined by Merriam-Webster, a canopic jar is “a jar in which the ancient

Egyptians preserved the viscera of a deceased person usually for burial with the mummy”

(“Definition of Canopic Jar”). Additionally, the word canopic comes from the jar used to store

the remains of the Greek warrior Kanopus that was revered in the Egyptian city of Abu Qir,

which travelers would then associate with the jars found in tombs (“Canopic Equipment: Beauty

and Revelations in Ancient Egypt”). However, the use of canopic jars was deeply ingrained into

mortuary rituals that Egyptians followed to ensure the dead a proper afterlife for millennia before

this connection arose. This paper seeks to explore the practical significance of canopic jars as

containers to store organs, as well as their religious importance through their connection to the

Sons of Horus and other aspects of the Egyptian religion.

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Since the introduction of canopic jars during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt in the Old

Kingdom, their style has remained mostly consistent through the New Kingdom when the

practice started to die off in favor of other practices dealing with the organs of the body (Redford

234). To help the reader understand the process taken to create a canopic jar and what it looked

like, this paper will focus on a set of canopic jars from the British Museum, known as EA57368.

This set of four jars contains many elements of other traditional canopic jars that

archaeologists have found, as well as some elements that differ from others. The canopic jars of

EA57368 are made of pottery that has been glazed to create a blue or green coloration to them.

While the use of ceramics is fairly common for canopic jars, the glazing treatment that these

received seems to be uncommon amongst canopic jars. Other specimens are typically painted or

left as the raw material, as seen in another artifact from the British Museum, EA30838 (“Canopic

Chest; Canopic Jar”). Other than clay, canopic jars could be made from various stones like

alabaster, wood, or cartonnage, which was a material created through the layering of papyrus or

linens and then bound together with plaster (Redford 234; “The faces of Mummies”).

Furthermore, Psamtek’s canopic jars also feature the standard lid design that emerged within the

New Kingdom Period, which featured the heads of the Four Sons of Horus: Imsety, Hapy,

Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef. Before the emergence of using the therianthropic gods as the lids,

canopic jars would either have flat lids or be decorated with human faces. The faces were

possibly representative of the deceased that they were being buried with (Redford 232).

However, older designs of canopic jars would persist into the New Kingdom, as demonstrated by

a canopic jar located in the Royal Ontario Museum (Dodson 210). Another stylistic decision that

is shared among most canopic jars is the inscriptions that are carved into the jar. The

hieroglyphics written on this set of canopic jars include the names of Psamtek as well as
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invocations to the Sons of Horus for the protection of the innards (“Canopic Jar”). These

invocations, or spells as they might be more colloquially, known might also be intended to assist

the dead in the afterlife. The hieroglyphs found on a canopic jar belonging to Nesu-Ba-Neb-

Denet address Qebehsenuef in hopes that the dead will reach a prosperous afterlife, and that “…

they be abundantly endowed through that which goes forth from thee” (Hayes 263). The formal

qualities of canopic jars, like these inscriptions, demonstrate that canopic jars could serve a

myriad of purposes, whether that be to simply remember the names of the deceased or to serve a

more mystical function.

Fig. 1: Set of Canopic Jars (EA57368) Belonging to Psamtek from the 30th Dynasty.

One major element that seems to be missing from EA57368 is the canopic chest, which

would function as the container for all four of the jars as a sort of miniature coffin. Canopic

chests could be made out of wood or stone and often resembled the sarcophagus of the person

who they were buried with, along with a few key recurring symbols or gods. Typically, Anubis,
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the jackal-headed god who is most commonly associated with mortuary rituals, the Sons of

Horus, and the protector goddesses of the Sons of Horus were often represented on a canopic

chest. However, other gods or aspects of Egyptian could appear on a coffin chest depending on

whom it belonged to (“Canopic Equipment: Beauty and Revelations in Ancient Egypt”).

Fig. 2: An Example of a Canopic Chest, Belonging to Nepy from the 18th Dynasty.

The canopic chest of Maiherpri shows a near-intact view of a standard canopic chest and

how the canopic jars could be stored within it, as the interior of it would be divided up into

quarters, one for each. As Hammad and Gerges write, the coffin chest resembles the decorative

style and art of Maiherpri’s coffin, with lots of black and gold (Hammad and Gerges 2). This is a

direct contrast to the simplistic art of canopic jars, which could be as plain as just an inscription

on an unpainted clay jar, while these could extremely elaborate to fit the theme of the tomb that it

was placed within.

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To understand the practical significance of canopic jars, it would be best to understand

the context of them and how they fit into the mummification process. Mummifying a body was a

lengthy process that relied on both ritual and medical preparations for the body, the latter of

which will be focused on within this section. The earliest mummies that archeologists and

historians have found in Egypt are those that formed through natural processes, as the climate of

Egypt provided a perfect setting for bodies to dry out and become well-preserved. However,

Ancient Egyptians formally started to experiment with mummification during the Fourth

Dynasty and perfected their techniques by the 18 th Dynasty of the New Kingdom (“Egyptian

Mummies”). This process began immediately after a person had died. The body was taken to an

embalmer so they could remove all of their organs before they began to decay, which is where

canopic jars come in. The only organs that would not be preserved would be the heart, as that

held special importance to the Egyptians since it would weigh against the Feather of Ma’at

during judgment in the underworld, and the brain, which would be removed through the nasal

using a special tool (Redford 440-441). From there, the embalmers dehydrated the body through

the use of natron or other salts. Up until the experiments conducted by Sandison in the mid-

twentieth century, it was believed that Egyptians used a natron solution to dehydrate the body,

but evidence showed that it was more common to stuff the body with solid natron and other

various ingredients to draw out the moisture (Sandison 266 – 267). Following this, the body was

stuffed and wrapped before the last of the funerary rites, such as the Opening of the Mouth

ceremony, were performed by the embalmers (Redford 442-443). This process formed the basis

of mummification at the peak of Egyptian power, and while slight variations would be made

throughout the long history of Egypt, it remained largely the same.

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One of these variations would be the practical use of canopic jars. Canopic jars emerged

as an alternative to the simple bundles of mummified organs that had previously been the

standard option for preserving the vital viscera that Egyptians would need in the afterlife. This

development arose most likely to provide a better form of physical protection to accompany the

spiritual protection given by the Sons of Horus and the protector goddesses of the Sons

themselves (Redford 242). However, common belief has it that the full organ would have been

stored within these jars, but recent radiographic testing demonstrated that it most likely would

have been only a small fragment of the organ in a way to symbolize its presence. This makes

sense given the general size of canopic jars, which tend to be on the smaller side (Eppenberger et

al.). The trend of keeping organ remnants in canopic jars persisted into the New Kingdom and it

was also during this time that the practical purpose of canopic jars began to shift. Mummies from

this period show that embalmers were returning the mummified organs to the body of the

deceased more and more commonly, in a possible attempt to make the body more lifelike

(Cooney 36). No longer were canopic jars containers for the dead’s organs, and it could have

been likely that the practice might have died out, but the tradition of using canopic jars had been

instilled into the Egyptian peoples, and their prevalence persisted. These late New Kingdom and

Third Intermediate Period jars were empty and only served to maintain the common funerary

practice (“Canopic Equipment: Beauty and Revelations from Ancient Egypt”). The practical uses

of canopic jars greatly varied throughout the various dynastic periods of Egypt, whether that be

an alternative to bundles, a protective storage unit, or as a purely decorative object placed in a

tomb to continue the legacy of embalming techniques and the standard positioning of a tomb.

Though there are numerous practical uses for canopic jars, the religious importance of the

receptacles proved to play an even larger role within Egyptian mortuary rituals. Before we get
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into the religious significance of canopic jars and the Sons of Horus, it would prove helpful to

understand the religious reasons for the mummification of the dead and the process of moving

from the world of the living to the dead. According to Ancient Egyptian beliefs, the body had to

be preserved to make it to the afterlife, and the solution to this issue was to mummify the body,

as this paper has discussed in great detail up to this point. After the Opening of the Mouth

ceremony, in which the soul was freed from the body, the spirit would venture to the underworld

assisted by the Sons of Horus who would guide and protect the person, so they remained intact

(“TT 78, the Tomb of Horemheb”, Gee 11). Once the person had reached the afterlife, they

would enter the Hall of Truth to face the Judgment of the Dead conducted by Osiris, Anubis, and

other various death-gods. Their heart, left in situ during the mummification, would be weighed

against the Feather of Truth and they would have to recite various quotations as provided by the

Book of the Dead, like the negative confession, and if they passed these tests, they would enter

into the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian afterlife. At this point is where the possessions left in the

tomb would factor in as the life of the dead functioned similarly to the life of the living,

including working and needing to eat and drink, all of which would be helped along by offerings

and goods left in the tomb (Redford 211-214).

So, who exactly are Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef? As stated before, the

Sons of Horus were the guides to the underworld, and they were not associated in any way with

canopic jars or mummification. Over time, the constant use of the Sons of Horus as protective

deities eventually led to their likeness being represented on the lids of canopic jars (Gee 57). The

exact lineage of the four gods is debated as two of the main sources of Egyptian funerary beliefs,

the Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead, provide conflicting accounts of where they came

from. Both sources describe the quartet as being the children of the falcon-headed god, but the
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Pyramid Texts state that they could be parts of his soul and the Book of the Dead suggests that

Isis is the mother of the Sons of Horus (“The Four Sons of Horus - Amseti, Hapy, Duamutef,

Qebehsenuef”; Wilkinson 88). The first god, Imsety, is depicted with a human head, and it is he

who guards over the liver. Another god is the god Hapy who protects the lungs of a person and

has the head of a baboon. The third son of Horus is the god Duamutef, who watches over the

stomach and is often shown with the head of a jackal, similar to the god Anubis. Lastly, there is

the god Qebehsenuef, who is represented with the head of a falcon and watches over the

intestines. (“The Four Sons of Horus - Amseti, Hapy, Duamutef, Qebehsenuef”). Furthermore,

the Egyptians believed that each of the sons of Horus was protected by a goddess who would

ensure that all of the organs would make it to the afterlife. These goddesses were Isis, Neith,

Nephthys, and Selket, and they were each associated with the respective Son of Horus listed

above (Wilkinson 88). Even though the Sons of Horus rarely appear outside of funerary texts and

as lids that cover canopic jars, the gods help historians in other ways like determining how

writing styles have evolved and spread over time, as well as, helping to provide context to

Egyptian cosmological beliefs, proving their vital importance to Egyptian beliefs (Semenenko

and Hereikhanova 145).

Outside of their protective qualities, the positioning of the Sons of Horus in artwork

around the tomb, as well as the location of the canopic jars suggests that they had other

functions. The organization of Egyptian tombs suggests that the Sons of Horus belong to a much

larger system in which the coffin and associated funerary objects helped form a miniature

representation of the universe. The Sons of Horus are often associated with specific directions

with Ismet and Hapy connecting to the North and with Duamutef and Qebehsenuef connecting to

the South. These parallels can be seen in where the quartet is depicted on coffins, canopic chests
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(containers of the canopic jars), and where the cult centers of the gods were supposed to be

located, Buto and Hierakonpolis for each group, respectively (Raven). Furthering the metaphor

of a tomb as a microcosm of the Egyptian world, the Sons of Horus are also connected to the

Egyptian night sky. In the Book of the Dead, the Sons are referenced to be behind the Thigh,

which, according to Egyptian astronomical writings, would be equated to the modern Ursa Major

or Big Dipper (“The Four Sons of Horus - Amseti, Hapy, Duamutef, Qebehsenuef”). As has been

established earlier within this essay, the process of going to the Egyptian afterlife via

mummification takes seventy days, and it is no coincidence that the Egyptian astronomical

recordings and beliefs state that stars would spend seventy days in the Duat before returning to

the night sky (Conman 42). The numerous relationships joining the Egyptian beliefs about the

cosmos and the Sons of Horus, and the canopic jars that they have become intertwined with,

show that the jars were extremely valuable for funerary rites. Even when the canopic jars did not

contain the organs they once did, they served as symbolic representations of protective deities

that would ensure the safe travel of the spirit to the afterlife, as well as fundamental pillars of

Egyptian cosmology and tomb arrangement.

Even though the use of canopic jars may be unfamiliar to the average reader, they were of

extreme importance to the funerary customs of the Egyptians. Over the course of millennia, the

form of canopic jars, and the chests they would be stored in, went through many changes to

better reflect the ever-changing belief system of the Egyptians and what needed to be represented

at the time. Practically, canopic jars served as physical protection for the organs of the deceased,

so they would not be damaged. However, they continued to remain an important piece in

Egyptian tombs even when the organs were returned to the body because of their history as an

invaluable part of the tomb. Religiously, the jars were deeply connected with the Sons of Horus,
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who went from simple to guardian deities to figures inseparable from the idea of mummification.

Additionally, the Sons of Horus, and transversely canopic jars, played a vital role in the layout of

Egyptian tombs due to their connection to the cosmos and directions. From a better method of

storing organs to a principal part of any tomb due to its religious connotations, the canopic jar

has become a key piece of Ancient Egyptian funerary customs, in both practical and religious

spheres.
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