The Canopi vases

 

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The word “canopy” vases was invented from the first Egyptologists that had wrongly attributed them to Copano, commander of Menelao’s ship on its return from the war in Troy: usually the vases were made in alabaster, but they were found also in limestone, in terracotta and also in glazed ceramic: They held the bowels taken from the body when it was mummified. They were put in the sepulchral chamber in the tomb next to the sarcophagus. At first the lids were very simple, then during the Middle Reign they began to have more complicated shapes: from the ramses period they were decorated with the four heads of “Horo’s children”. On the vases there were texts that put each one under a goddess’s protection.