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Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · statue

Canopic Jar with Lid in the Form of a Human Head

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: Canopic Jars The practice of mummifying human remains led to the development of a new kind of jar. During the mummification process, the liver, stomach, intestines, and lungs had to be removed to allow the corpse’s interior to dry. In the Fourth Dynasty, the Egyptians began storing these vital organs in four separate vessels, called canopic jars, and burying them with the mummy. Eighteenth Dynasty craftsmen started making canopic jar lids representing the four “Sons of Horus”—deities specifically charged with defending the organs. The human-headed god Imsety protected the liver. Caption: Canopic Jar with Lid in the Form of a Human Head, ca.1539–1353 B.C.E.. Limestone, clay, pigment, Other (A): 10 1/4 x 4 5/16 in. (26.1 x 11 cm) Other (B): 5 7/16 x 3 1/8 in. (13.8 x 8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1733Ea-b. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A canopic jar with a human-shaped lid.

This artifact is a canopic jar typically used in ancient Egypt to store and preserve the viscera of their owner for the afterlife. The jar is made of a light-colored material, possibly limestone or clay, and features a human-shaped lid, indicative of one of the Four Sons of Horus. The face is detailed, with features typical of Egyptian artistry. The body of the jar shows signs of possible inscriptions, though they appear faded.

funerary New Kingdom good
Materials limestoneclay

Connections

Found at Egypt
Deities Horus
Materials LimestoneClay

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 37.1733Ea-b tier-2
  • BKM-Object 4176 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.