Canopic Jars

Canopic Jars

Definition

They are containers for the internal organs removed during the process of mummification.

The term “Canopic” derives from a case of mistaken identity: One form of visceral container was a human-headed jar. According to the writers of the Classical Period, the Greek hero Kanopos was worshipped at Canopus in the form of a human-headed jar as well. The name has stuck and has been extended by scholars to refer to all kinds of receptacles intended to hold viscera removed from mummification in Ancient Egypt.

Overview about mummification:

 Mummies is a term that describes the bodies of ancient Egyptians where dehydration of the tissues was used to prevent putrefaction. The word is derived from the Persian or Arabic word mumia (or mumiya), which means "bitumen". It originally referred to a black, asphalt-like substance, thought to have medicinal properties.

There was such a demand for this substance (mumia) that an alternative source was eventually sought and, because the ancient Egyptian mummies often have a blackened appearance, they were believed to possess similar properties to mumia. Hence, during the medieval and later times, they were used as medicinal ingredients. The term mumia, or "mummy" was therefore extended to these bodies and has continued in use up until our present day.

Mummification of bodies was originally a natural process in Egypt and elsewhere, where the dryness of the sand in which the body was buried, the heat or coldness of the climate, or the absence of air in the burial helped to produce unintentional or "natural" mummies.

In Egypt, a combination of climate and environment, as well as the people's religious beliefs and practices, led first to unintentional natural mummification and then to true mummification

In ancient Egypt, the early Egyptians chose to bury their dead in shallow pit-graves on the edges of the desert, where the heat of the sun and the dryness of the sand created the natural mummification process.

Even this natural process produced remarkably well preserved bodies. Often, these early natural mummified bodies retained skin tissue and hair, along with a likeness of the person's appearance when alive. 

In later periods, as prosperity and the advance in building techniques improved, more elaborate tombs for those of high social status were constructed. Yet at the same time, these brick lined underground burial chambers no longer provided the conditions which led to natural mummification in the older pit graves.

Mummification had been established in the religious belief system so that the deceased's Ka could return to and recognize the body, reenter it, and thus gain spiritual sustenance from the food offerings. Hence, a method was sought to artificially preserve the bodies of the highest classes.

Such efforts may have begun as early as the 2^nd Dynasty. A large mass of corroded linen were found between the bandages and bones of a body interred in a cemetery at Saqqara that perhaps evidences an attempt to use natron or another agent as a preservative by applying it to the surface of the skin. 

Only as early as the 4^th Dynasty do we actually find convincing evidence of successful, true mummification. Hetepheres, the mother of Khufu, also had a tomb at Giza. Though her body has not been found, in her tomb was discovered preserved viscera which could probably be attributed to this queen. An analysis of these viscera packets proved that they had been treated with natron, the agent that was successfully used in later times to dehydrate the body tissue.

Hence, this find demonstrates that the two most important components of mummification, evisceration of the body and dehydration of the tissues, was already in use by royalty. Afterwards, mummification continued to be practiced in Egypt for some three thousand years, lasting until the end of the Christian Era. 

The internal organs, called viscera, were normally removed from the thoracic and abdominal cavities through an abdominal incision in the left flank.

The viscera were then dehydrated with natron, and either placed in canopic jars or made into four packages and reinserted into the body cavities. Some were wrapped in one large packet that was placed on the legs of the mummy. Interestingly, the heart was considered to be the organ associated with the individual's intelligence and life force and was therefore retained in place, while the brain was removed and discarded. 

After removal of the internal organs, the body cavities were washed out with spiced palm wine and then filled with a mixture of dry natron (a type of salt) gum resin and vegetable matter. Afterwards, the corpse was left to dehydrate, apparently in a bath of natron, for a period of up to seventy days.

However, experimentation has proven that forty days is sufficient for the dehydration process, and the seventy days that Herodotus spoke of may have actually represented the period of time between the individual's death and his burial.

After the body was completely dehydrated, the temporary stuffing that was used to fill the body was removed from its cavities and replaced with the permanent stuffing and sometimes also with the viscera packages.

Next the abdominal incision was closed, the nostrils were plugged with resin or wax, and the body was anointed with a variety of oils and gum resins, which may have also played some part in preventing or delaying insect attack and in masking the odors of decomposition that would have accompanied the mummification process.

After the basic mummification process was completed, the embalmers then wrapped the mummy in layers of linen bandages, between which they inserted protected amulets to guard the deceased from evil and danger.

Next, a liquid or semi-liquid resinous substance was then poured over the mummy and coffin. The mummy and coffin were then returned to the family of the deceased for the funeral and burial.

Historical background about canopic jars

The very earliest canopic equipment consisted of simple chests, or even a specially built cavity in the wall, where wrapped visceral bundles were placed. The first possible canopic installations  are found at Saqqara in tombs of the 2^nd Dynasty.

The first clear examples are dated to the 4^th Dynasty (reign of Snefru) where a number of tombs at Meidum contain niches whose size and position point to their being canopic.

An actual chest was provided for Snefru’s wife Hetepheres, carved from a block of alabaster and divided into four square compartments, each of which contained a mass that was a part of her internal organs soaked in a solution of natron.

During the 4^th Dynasty, canopic chests were placed at the southern (foot) end of the body. Such receptacles were in the chamber wall or cuttings in the floor.

The first indication of a king's canopic equipment was discovered in the paving blocks to the southeast of the sarcophagus of Khafre, at the second pyramid at Giza.

By the end of the 4^th Dynasty, the organs were sometimes placed inside stone or pottery jars with flat or domed lids.

The earliest such canopic jars come from the 4^th Dynasty tomb of Queen Meresankh III at Giza, during the reign of Menkaure.

From the end of the Old Kingdom, the four basic organs removed became associated with the Four Sons of Horus who were considered as guardians or re-incarnations in the specific organs removed during the mummification process.

The liver was identified with the human-headed Imsety under the protection of Isis.

The lungs were associated with the baboon-headed Hapy under the protection of Nephtys.

The stomach was identified with  the jackal-headed Dwamutef under the protection of Neith.

The intestines were associated with the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef under the protection of Serket.

Geographically, Imsety was linked with the South, Hapy with the North, Dwamutef with the East and Qebehsenuef with the West.

Imesty→human-head→liver→Isis →South.

Hapy→baboon→lungs→Nephtys →North.

Dwamutef→jackel→stomach→Neith →East.

Qbhsnwef→falcon→intestines→selket →West.

It was during the First Intermediate Period that the lid of canopic jars started to take on the form of a human head instead of a flat or domed shape.

And while previously, inscriptions on canopic equipment had been limited to the name and title of the deceased, wooden canopic chests began to have texts that run around   the upper part of the chest.

At the end of the Middle Kingdom, a classical pattern for canopic equipment was achieved. A stone outer chest would reflect the design of the stone sarcophagus, and the inner chest was made of wood and reflected the coffin. Within the wooden chest, the four lids of the jars were human-headed.

Early in the eighteenth dynasty, canopic decoration changed once more, focusing on the image of the four goddesses and their genii. Now, the genii are usually identifiable from the jar tops,   shaped as heads.

Early in the 18^th  dynasty as well, the form of the chests evolved from simple boxes with flat or vaulted lids to those imitating the form of Naos shrines. Jars were made of various materials including calcite, limestone, pottery, wood and cartonnage.

During the reign of Akhenaton(18th Dynasty), the  texts on the jars provide the names and titles of the king, as well as those of Aten.

 The traditional gods and goddesses of burial are omitted. A falcon, the earliest embodiment of the sun god, acted as protector at the canopic chest's corners. But the divine ladies reappear in the equipment of his probable son, Tutankhamun.

With Tutankhamun's canopic equipment, the goddesses not only cover the corners of the stone chest, but as gilded wooden statues, they guard the great gilded wooden shrine that enclosed the canopic chest. The chest itself was a solid block with four cylindrical compartments sealed with lids in the shape of the king's head (though probably not of Tutankhamun himself).

Royal chests were modified during the reign of Merenptah in that they no longer displayed the four corner goddesses.

By the early 20^th Dynasty, we no longer find canopic chests, but rather large, individual jars bearing the heads of the goddesses.

Sometime around the 21^st Dynasty, funerary customs took an interesting turn. No longer were the viscera of most mummies interred separately from the body.

During the mummification process, they were returned to the body cavity. Still, the customs related to canopic equipment were so strong that jars remained part of the funerary equipment (for the wealthy), but were left empty.  However, by the 22^nd Dynasty, the jars were superseded by solid dummy jars

Canopic equipment, which had now been in use for thousands of years, finally came to an end sometime during the Ptolemaic period. A very few Ptolemaic jars are known, they were contained in small but tall chests resembling shrines.

However, even prior to the Roman occupation of Egypt, these too disappeared forever from the funerary practices of the ancients.