Tall shrine-shaped 'canopic' box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the front side of the box the main scene depicts a king in a white crown offering to Osiris who is followed by the deceased, while on the rear a falcon with spread drooping wings and heraldic cobras on either side is shown. The two side vignettes are the ones that clearly indicate the purpose of the box: on one side of the box appear two shrines in which kings or a king and a figure with a disc on its head offer to the Sons of Horus Hapy (baboon head) and Imsety (human head); on the other side of the box the two shrines enclose figures offering to the Sons of Horus Duamutef (jackal head) and Qebesenuef (falcon head). Blanks are left where texts would have been filled in. Such boxes where the Sons of Horus figure prominently are understood to function either as containers for the viscera since canopic jars have gone out of use, or to hold materials from the embalming process respected because of their association with the body. Examples with preserved lids can have a three-dimensional figure of Sokar or of Anubis on the lid. The tall boxes seem to belong to the 4th century B.C. and later. The precise dating of this one is not clear.

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