Canopic Jar Lid

The eyes and eyebrows of this female head were once inlaid. Their shapes, the woman's smiling little mouth, and the holes in her lobes for earrings suggest that the head was carved during the reign of Amenhotep III or one of his successors at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty or, more probably, during the Nineteenth Dynasty. The flaring wig is hollow, a feature that suggests this head was not part of a statue but was made as the lid of a jar. However, in this period, canopic jars, made to contain the internal organs of the deceased, had lids in the shapes of gods' heads. Human-headed jar lids are rare.