Keep your lid on…

Four ‘canopic’ jars of Horemsaf

There were several types of embalming, depending on what people could afford to pay for funeral services.  The most elaborate – and therefore most expensive – included removing the brain and other organs, which would permanently damage the body once they started to rot.  They were therefore mummified separately, in ‘canopic’ jars. Canopic jars always numbered four, and they were placed next to the mummy. Their lids represent the four sons of Horus who play a protective role, since they are the grandsons of the god Osiris.