Canopic Box

The canopic chest was an important part of the funerary equipment of the ancient Egyptians since the Old Kingdom. It was made to hold the four canopic jars that contained the wrapped internal organs removed from the corpse during the mummification process.
The lid of this Ptolemaic wooden chest is now missing. Its shape and the much damaged decoration of the chest recall a shrine. The top is painted with a kheker -frieze, a motif used to decorate the top ends of tomb and shrine walls. The sides below feature faint traces of the four sons of Horus, protectors of the internal organs. The human-headed Imsety is shown on the frontal panel, the hawk-headed Qebehsenuef on the rear, the jackal-headed Duamutef on the right, the baboon-headed Hapy on the left lateral side.
In the inside bottom of the chest are fragments of linen wrapping and some sticky substance, probably remains of a package of viscera. During the Late and Ptolemaic periods, packages of mummified internal organs were not necessarily put in canopic jars, but placed directly in canopic chests.