Model Canopic Jar

Solid limestone model of a canopic jar with a falcon’s head, representing one of the Four Sons of Horus, Qebehsenuef, who protected the intestines. 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. Wellcome Historical Medical Museum no. 610 (Rustafjaell collection). Purchased at Sotheby's, London, 19-21 December 1906. Label with serrated edge adhered to surface with printed number 610 which is how Robert de Rustafjaell collection items were labelled. Also a label with the printed number 345.