What are canopic jars?
Canopic jars were important because they were heavily involved in the process of mummification and religious purposes. Ancient Egyptians removed the liver, lungs, intestines, and everything besides the heart, then placed them in religious jars called canopic jars. The jars were meant to preserve the organs with the body. Each jar had a top that represented different things. Imsety with a human head protected the liver, Qebehsenuf had a falcon head and held the intestines, Hapy with a baboon head protected the lungs, and Duematef had a jackal head and guarded the stomach. Then, they placed the four decorated jars into a decorated chest that went in the mummy’s tomb. Canopic jars protected and the internal organs for religious reasons.
Egyptian Beliefs about the Heart
Ancient Egyptians did not remove the heart from a dead body because they believed it was the main part of a person and showed their personality. The heart was tested by the god Osiris and he decided, based on the heart, whether they were permitted to go into the afterlife or not. Anubis, the god of mummification knelt by a scale, and on a side of the scale was the heart called the ib which was one of the five different parts of a person’s soul. Around the ib, there were five different figures based on the other parts of the soul and Ka and Ba and Shai, the god of fate were by the scale too. This was all part of getting the soul ready to move on from the world of the living.