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Canopic Jar of Lady Senebtisi

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Funerary Gallery 3, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
Priests separately mummified the stomach, liver, lungs, and intestines, to be placed in jars, in the most expensive method of mummification described by Herodotus. The practice of removing the organs and packing them separately declined in the Middle Kingdom and later, yet Egyptians still included canopic jars in burials. And while the covers of Middle Kingdom canopic jars all have human heads, by the New Kingdom the jars of the royal scribe of Ramesses II, named Tjuli, had human, baboon, jackal, and falcon heads.
MEDIUM Limestone, pigment
  • Place Excavated: Harageh, Egypt
  • DATES ca. 1938–1759 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 12
    PERIOD Middle Kingdom
    DIMENSIONS 10 13/16 x 8 1/16 in. (27.5 x 20.5 cm) 15 9/16 in. (39.5 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 14.665a-b
    CREDIT LINE Museum Collection Fund
    PROVENANCE Tomb No. 92, Harageh, Egypt; 1913-14, excavated by the British School of Archaeology; 1914, purchased from the British School of Archaeology by the Brooklyn Museum.
    Provenance FAQ
    CAPTION Canopic Jar of Lady Senebtisi, ca. 1938–1759 B.C.E. Limestone, pigment, 10 13/16 x 8 1/16 in. (27.5 x 20.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 14.665a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.14.665a-b_mummychamber.jpg)
    IMAGE installation, Egypt Reborn: Mummy Chamber Installation (2011), CUR.14.665a-b_mummychamber.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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