Model Canopic Jar
1973.2.332
Information
Solid limestone model of a canopic jar with a human head, representing one of the Four Sons of Horus, Imsety, who protected the liver. His name is inscribed in a vertical column of hieroglyphs with border, all in thick black paint.
Following the Twentieth Dynasty some embalmers abandoned use of jars (known now as canopic jars) to store the internal organs removed from a dead body during the mummification ritual. Canopic jars remained an important element of elite burial customs, but the jars were just models carved out of a single block of stone and not hollowed out. Sometimes they are called dummy canopic jars as they are designed to resemble and serve as a substitute for real ones.
For dating compare with examples excavated by James Quibell at the Ramesseum within a Dynasty 22 context: J. E. Quibell, 'The Ramesseum' (London, 1898), p.11, pl. XX.