Canopic Urns
Arising from a passionate love of life, the mystical fascination with immortality in ancient Egypt led to a national economy centered around the production of ritual funerary equipment. As the sons of Horus, the 4 genies Imseti, Hapi, Duamutef, and Qebhsenuef were identified with the internal organs of the dead, which were separately embalmed and entombed in 4 ceremonial receptacles named for the town of Canopus where idols of the local god took the form of a rounded jar with the head of Osiris.
Until the close of the 18
th
Dynasty, such jars typically bore stoppers with human heads. Eventually they came to be fitted with the heads of a human, a baboon, a jackal, and a falcon in the likeness of the sons of Horus. After the 21
st
Dynasty, when the organs were customarily returned to the mummy, nonfunctional miniature Canopic jars continued to be included ceremonially.
