MIDDLE KINGDOM TO SECOND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, 13TH-17TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1773-1550 B.C.

Consisting of a fired ceramic base with a separately-modelled lid in the form of a human head, this canopic jar is an unusual example due to its date, inscription and vividly-painted decoration. The portrait of the owner features a wig painted with black stripes, while the headband of the wig, the eyebrows and the cosmetic line of the eyes are outlined in light blue. The eyes are rendered with red corners and black pupils, outlined in black. The container upon which the lid sits has a wide shoulder that narrows to a tapered base. The black background of the jar is offset by the yellow field of hieroglyphic inscription in four lines, carried out in light blue paint and delineated by thin black register lines. The quail chick hieroglyphs feature no legs, a practice typical of so-called “mutilated” or unfinished hieroglyphs occurring in funerary contexts into the Second Intermediate Period, protecting the owner from any potential harm caused by animal or human figures. A close parallel in Cairo, acquired at Thebes in 1884, is similarly decorated, and also features unfinished bird hieroglyphs (see G. A. Reisner, Canopics, pp. 142-143, pl. XXXII). Ceramic canopic jars were produced beginning in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the 18th Dynasty.

The inscription provides a spell placing the internal organs of the deceased under the protection of Neith, one of the tutelary goddesses, and associating the organ placed in the jar with the god Hapy: “Recitation by Neith: My hands conceal…the Hapy of…the Venerated One with Hapy, the Osiris, Commander of the Ruler’s Crew, Mentu-nakhte, justified.” A standing statue of a “Commander of the Ruler’s Crew Mentu-nakhte” in Cairo may belong to the same individual (see L. Borchardt, Statuen und Statuetten von Königen und Privatleuten im Muuseum von Kairo, pt. 4, p. 129, pl. 1). The Cairo statue has been grouped stylistically by S. Connor with other examples identified by M. Marée depicting mostly military officials who were presumably active in the regional wars of the Second Intermediate Period (see “Sculpture Workshops: Who, Where, and for Whom?,” in G. Miniaci, et al., eds., The Arts of Making in Ancient Egypt, pp. 11-30 and “A Sculpture Workshop at Abydos from the Late Sixiteenth or Early Seventeenth Dynasty,” in Marée, ed., The Second Intermediate Period (Thirteenth-Seventeenth Dynasties): Current Research, Future Prospects, pp. 241-281).