Canopic jar of Nephthys

Canopic jar of Nephthys

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This Middle Kingdom canopic jar belongs to a set of four (11.150.17b–e), which were used to contain the viscera removed from the body during mummification. These four jars belong very probably to the burial of a mayor’s daughter called Nephthys (for her mummy, see 11.150.15c, and for her two coffins, see 11.150.15a, b). In earlier 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.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Canopic jar of NephthysCanopic jar of NephthysCanopic jar of NephthysCanopic jar of NephthysCanopic jar of Nephthys

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.