Collection record · Everyday wonders
Canopic Jar with Falcon's Head
The collection record classifies this work as funerary equipment. It is dated 664–525 BCE. Recorded culture or place: Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 26.
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A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Canopic Jar with Falcon's Head
- Date
- 664–525 BCE
- Culture / origin
- Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 26
- Materials and technique
- travertine
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 18.6 cm (7 5/16 in.); Diameter of mouth: 10.5 cm (4 1/8 in.); Overall: 45.3 cm (17 13/16 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1921.1018
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
In the process of mummification, the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines were removed, separately embalmed, and stored in specialized jars known as canopic jars (after a sailor in Greek mythology, who died at the town of Canopus in the Nile Delta and was worshipped there in the form of a human-headed jar). Each organ was identified with one of four funerary deities collectively known as the Sons of Horus: the liver with Imsety (man's head), the lungs with Hapy (baboon's head), the stomach with Duamutef (jackal's head), and the intestines with Qebehsenuef (falcon's head). It was their duty to protect the deceased and restore to him his body parts in the hereafter.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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