
Canopic jar lid
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This sculpted head was the lid of a canopic jar, one of the four containers for the organs that were removed during mummification. In previous periods, canopic jars had simple disc-shaped or hemispherical lids. In the late First Intermediate Period to early Middle Kingdom, however, lids in the form of human heads were introduced. The hooded eyes, marked cheek bones, and the lines beside the nostrils of this head can be compared to the features found in the quartzite face of Senwosret III (26.7.1394).
Egyptian Art
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.