Canopic Chest of Khonsu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The canopic box, made for Khonsu (see 86.1.1a, b and 86.1.2a, b), has a shrine-shaped lid and the typical Egyptian cavetto cornice around the upper edge. It is built on sledge runners, and there are two knobs for tying the lid shut. The interior is divided into four compartments for the storage of the four internal organs. The lid is decorated with two images of Anubis as a jackal, and the sides of the box are decorated with the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, Selket and Neith, and the Four Sons of Horus, protectors of the internal organs. The inscriptions assure Khonsu of their protection. Other objects in the collection that were discovered in the same tomb can be viewed here.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art