Wall Painting of Anubis

Painted mud and plaster wall fragment with a representation of Anubis shown as a jackal seated on a shrine, wearing a ceremonial collar and holding a flail. Anubis was the god of mummification and protector of the dead. The Egyptians called Anubis ‘he who is upon his mountain’ as if he were sitting up high guarding the cemetery. The Egyptians knew that jackals fed on the dead at night. To ease their minds, the jackal became Anubis, a guardian of the cemetery rather than a scavenger. The wall fragment is most likely to be from the wall of a Theban tomb.