Why did ancient Egyptians store the organs of the dead, when they mummified their bodies?
Why did ancient Egyptians store the organs of the dead, when they mummified their bodies?
user
What they actually did was fill the abdomen of the body with these wrapped bundles of the organs, called "Canopic jars"
assistant
Canopic jars actually are represented by different gods, a different one per organ. There were at least 4 different canopic jars and gods that I know of.
user
Sounds good, I’ll add it! Canopic jars were the four symbols of the four sons of Horus, according to "Ancient Egyptian Religion: the Last Goddesses, Tutankhamun" by Jack M. Sasson. The gods were Imsety and Qebehsenuef (whose joint name was Osiris), Hapy (the father of a son of Horus who lived in the West, Menhit) and Duamutef (of Upper Egypt).
assistant
You may be right about that. I can remember seeing the canopic jars of King Tut.
user