Canopic chest of Hornedjitef

In the 30th Dynasty (380-343 BC), the four packages with embalmed entrails were no longer interred in vases or between the mummy’s legs, but placed in a small wooden chest in the form of a shrine or naos. These chapel-shaped canopic chests are also found in the subsequent age of the Ptolemies. The chest consists of a square base plate on which stand four painted side panels, which incline inward slightly and are bounded by a characteristic hollow cornice. A wooden figure of a falcon mummy has been attached to the lid, representing Sokar, the god of the dead. The owner of this chest was Hornedjitef, a priest of Amon. His grave lay along the road leading to Queen Hatshepsut’s temple of the dead, in Deir el-Bahari. Other burial gifts belonging to this person are now in the British Museum.