what were Canopic Jars used for?
The ancient Egyptians believed that a dead person would need their organs in the afterlife. For this purpose, four major organs were taken from the body during the mummification process and stored in canopic jars. Each pot contained one organ; these were the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines. The heart was the home of the spirit of the deceased person and should remain with the body, which they believed. The bodies were wrapped in leaves and put into jars and consecrated oil was poured into jars. The jars were sealed as part of the funeral rituals. [ Read a full article about Mummification in ancient Egypt ]
What does canopic mean?
Canopic is a wrongly given name, canopic jars, but the correct name is viscera jars because the ancient Egyptians used to mummify the deceased and take out the organs during this process so they would mummify these organs and put them in jars that were called viscera or canopic jars. The name canopies come from a story that says that there was a Greek sailor called (Canopus), who was sailing in the sea suddenly there was a great storm, so he was forced to rest on the Egyptian shore at the site of Abu Kir in Alexandria (the capital of Egypt during the Greco-Roman period), then the king of Egypt was beaten by a scorpion and the Greek sailor healed, the king rewarded him by deifying him. Then he was worshipped in the form of a pot with a human head as the god Osiris who has worshipped in the same format this place. Therefore, he was called- Osiris-Canopus and since that time, scholars began to call the pots with a man’s head canopic vessels.
The Canopic jars Design
The Canopic jars were wide mouth, to allow the positioning of the organs inside, and 5 to 10 inches high. They were made of clay, stone, wood or even gold, depending on the wealth of the deceased. The covers or stoppers on each of the four jars of deities represented, each of the four sons of Horus. The gods were painted, sculpted or engraved on the body of the vessel and the lid. Throughout the dynasties of Egypt, the style of the Canopic jar evolved from a normal ritual vessel to a richly decorated tomb ornament.
What do the canopic jars represent?
The canopic jars are an indispensable part of Egyptian burials. They contained the viscera of the mummies they accompanied on their journey to the afterlife. They were both works of art and talismans. According to the religious beliefs of ancient Egypt, it was enough to place the canopic jars s in the tombs next to the deceased to guarantee them magical protection.
When the body of the deceased was mummified, his viscera were carefully washed, usually with palm wine, and then stuffed with myrrh, aniseed, onions… The organs were then wrapped in a very fine linen cloth and then placed separately in the four jars in the middle of a preservative liquid based on oils, the same ones used to embalm the bodies. Inside the mummy, the missing organs were replaced with sawdust or linen stamps. Once filled, the canopic vases were themselves stored inside a wooden chest, the canopic chest. Egyptologists have recovered hundreds of these boxes.
The Chiefs of the Canopic Jars
Egyptian gods often had animal heads, The heads of the four sons of Horus were described as their canopic jarred animals, each protected as an organ: Imsety (Four sons of Horus), with the face of a man.
– The canopic vase containing the liver was protected by Imsety, with a lid that represented a human head. Its cardinal point was the South and its Goddess was Isis.
– The Canopic Jars that contained the stomach was protected by Duamutef, with a lid that represented a jackal head. Duamutef was under the protection of Neith, the Creator goddess of war
He is also associated with the male god Anubis.
– The Canopic Jars that contained the lungs were protected by Hapy, Hapy was under the protection of Nephthys, the goddess of the dead and divine assistance.
The development of the canopic Jars pots and throughout history:
The first canopic Jars was found would date from the 4th dynasty, it belongs to queen Hetepheres wife of King Sneferu the founder of the 4th dynasty and the mother of King Cheops the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza Plateau.
So the first canopic jars to be found belongs to Queen Meresankh III wife of King Khafra.
During the old kingdom, the stoppers of the canopic jars used to be flat or rounded.
During the Middle Kingdom, the stoppers of the canopic jars developed and took the shape of the head of the deceased and they even added details of the body which were the arms and feet, then they attached it to the pot to imitate the real mummy of the deceased.
During the New Kingdom, the Jars continued to take the shape of the head of the deceased. But at the end of the New Kingdom, especially during the Ramesside period (19th and 20th dynasties) , the Jars began to take the shape of the four threads of hours which were Imesty, Hapy, Qebehsenuef, and Duamutef each of them was responsible for protecting one of the internal organs as well as a protective goddess.- Imesty
During the 21st Dynasty intermediate period with the development of the mummification process, the canopic Jars became fake or empty because they used to take the organs out of the body and mummify them and then return them to the body of the deceased person.
During 22nd Dynasty, during the reign of King Shoshenq I the Canopic Jars were found inside and they even placed fictitious organs inside.
So for the ancient Egyptians, the Canopic Jars became an important tradition, even though it was not used.
Therefore, the religious belief of the covered canopic Jars on their real function.- Usually, the canopic Jars were placed inside the burial chamber or at the foot of the coffins to allow the mummy when the soul had just collected organs to be easily resurrected.
The canopic chests were found decorated with a representation of the god Anubis standing above the cloth panel and the sign of vegetation as the god Anubis was related to the process of mummification if we found him on the chest viscera and he stood above the cloth panel that indicates the envelopes and signs indicating the vegetation of plants used during the mummification process.
-During the Ptolemic period times, canopic vases and chest were rare to find.