Canopic jar

Canopic jars are funerary vessels that were used by the ancient Egyptians to house embalmed organs that were removed during the mummification process. They also served to store and preserve the viscera of their soul^{[clarification needed]} for the afterlife.

Use of the jars dates back to the Old Kingdom and continued until the Late Period and the Ptolemaic Period, after which time the viscera were simply wrapped and placed with the body.

Over the course of ancient Egyptian history, various changes were made to the design and style of canopic jars. Contemporaneously, canopic jars are of interest for scientific and medical research.

Cinerary urns – for holding the ashes of cremated persons – with a head-shaped lid, also sometimes called "canopic", were used by the Etruscan civilization. Though these vessels are sometimes referred to as "canopic urns" or "canopic jars", their purpose and use is not related to the ancient Egyptian use of canopic jars.

The term canopic reflects the mistaken association by early Egyptologists with the Greek legend of Canopus – the boat captain of Menelaus on the voyage to Troy – "who was buried at Canopus in the Delta where he was worshipped in the form of a jar". In alternative versions, the name derives from the location Canopus (now Abu Qir) in the western Nile Delta near Alexandria, where human-headed jars were worshipped as personifications of the god Osiris.

The practice of evisceration began early in the Old Kingdom, but the use of canopic jars as storage for the organs was not well established until the First Intermediate Period.

During mummification, the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines were removed from the corpse to prevent putrefaction of the body. Each organ was salted in natron and placed respectively into one of four canopic jars. Because the ancient Egyptians believed it to be the seat of the soul, the heart was notably not removed in the process of mummification and no canopic jars were made for it.

Some canopic jars from the Old Kingdom were found empty and damaged, even in undisturbed tombs, suggesting that canopic jars may have been used symbolically in the burial ritual rather than physically being used to hold the organs.