Skip Navigation

Canopic Jar and Cover of Tjuli

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 Egyptian alabaster (calcite)
  • Place Made: Saqqara, Egypt
  • DATES ca. 1279–1213 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 19
    PERIOD New Kingdom
    DIMENSIONS 18 1/2 × 6 11/16 in. (47 × 17 cm) mount (supported by plaicre): 18 1/8 × 7 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (46 × 19.1 × 19.1 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 48.30.2a-b
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION One of four alabaster canopic jars of the Royal Scribe and Chief lector priest, Thenry. Jars of tall, slender form swelling out at the shoulders and then in to neck. Front of each jar decorated with incised panel running almost entire height of body. On upper part of each panel Thenry stands to right worshipping a standing representation of the same god as represented on cover. Inscriptions: one row above reliefs, one column between reliefs, and four columns below figures. Covers in form of heads of Sons of Horus. Each fitted with collar with interior of cover partially hollowed out. Remains of color. Condition: Excellent. Scattered natural defects in stone probably originally filled with plaster. Front base of cover of Duamutef chipped. Most of color lost.
    CAPTION Canopic Jar and Cover of Tjuli, ca. 1279–1213 B.C.E. Egyptian alabaster (calcite), 18 1/2 × 6 11/16 in. (47 × 17 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.30.2a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 48.30.2a-b_PS9.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 48.30.2a-b_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2020
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.