Tag: Canopic chest

Sandro Vannini’s Photography – King Tut’s Canopic Shrine

Several alabaster artefacts were discovered inside the Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62) by Howard Carter when he began excavating the tomb in 1922. The Canopic Shrine was one of the intruiging discoveries for how packed together it was, with a box containing several artefacts in a manner comparable to a Russian doll!

The Canopic Shrine is a large gilded wooden box flanked by a Canopy and supported on a sledge. Inside the shrine was the Canopic Chest, which has four hollowed spaces inside which are sealed by Human-Headed Stoppers. Inside the hollows were four small Canopic Coffinettes.

‘Canopic Shrine’ Slideshow

Heritage Key is working with Sandro Vannini and bringing his extensive catalogue of beautiful photography of Egyptian antiquities onto the world wide web, which we’re sure will fascinate even the most hardcore Egyptologist! To watch a slideshow of the Canopic Shrine, simply click any of the thumbnails below.

See it for yourself in King Tut Virtual

But it doesn’t stop there, as you can also visit King Tut Virtual and see digital recreations of many of the famous artefacts from KV62, walk through the Valley of the Kings, explore the banks of the River Nile in Ancient Egyptian times and even see more of Sandro Vannini’s photography in the virtual gallery.

Sandro Vannini’s Photography

Over a decade of experience in photographing the magnificent artefacts and tombs of Egypt has honed the skills of Sandro, and given him the experience required to capture the beautiful details of the Canopic Shrine. The equipment used to take the amazing photographs is obviously important too, and Sandro used a Hasselblad ELD Ixpress 528C camera to take these images. You can also see more of Sandro’s fantastic photography in his new book with the Director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass, “The Lost Tombs of Thebes: Life in Paradise” as well as reading about Sandro’s experiences of shooting the photographs in Thebes on Heritage Key, and watching the video about the Lost Tombs of Thebes featuring Dr Zahi Hawass and Dr Janice Kamrin (Watch the Video).

But for those of you who cant make the trip to the Cairo Museum to see the Canopic Shrine, Heritage Key offers these stunning photographs by Sandro Vannini. But there’s more: you can visit virtual replicas of Tutankhamun treasures in the Heritage Key’s King Tut exhibition, which features a virtual replica of many other breath-taking artefacts such as the Golden Mask of King Tutankhamun.

Don’t miss out on new treasures!

This post is part of a series focussing on amazing photographs from ancient Egypt. Keep checking back as well keep adding new images by Sandro Vannini. To make sure you don’t miss out on any of the updates, simply subscribe by email to receive notifications when new images are uploaded. For the more digitally advanced, there’s also an RSS feed with updates available.

See More Amazing Photography by Sandro

Have a look at some of the other stunning photographs by Sandro Vannini here at Heritage Key:

Ask Sandro

We’ll be sitting down with our favourite photographer for an extended chat soon, so if you have any questions for Sandro we’ll send the answers straight to you!

The Canopic Shrine of Tutankhamun

The gilded wooden canopic shrine was set against the eastern wall of the Treasury positioned facing the west, the land of the dead. On top is a frieze of Solar Uraei (cobras with sun disks on their heads) which takes the form of the per wer. The walls are gessoed, gilded and decorated with paired images of goddesses and gods charged with protecting viscera of the king: Isis and Imsety (the liver), Nephtys and Hapy (lungs), Neith and Duamutef (stomach) and Selket and Qebehsenuef (intestines).

The Canopic Chest has no bottom and inside it atop a smaller sledge with silver coated runners stood a chest carved from a single block of calcite, the lid of the chest echoes the sloping roof of the outer shrine and canopy, while its sides are inclined and are decorated at their corners with carved images of the same four protective goddesses who stood on each side of the canopic shrine.

Each Canopic Jar is topped with a separately carved human/headed stopper in the form of the King in a nemes headdress made of calcite with details such as eyes, lips and ornaments on the protective uraeus and vulture picked out in red and black paint. The four stoppers are marked underneath with a symbol indicating their correct position with the four Canopic Coffinettes inside the hollows.

The miniature version of the royal coffins containing the embalmed and wrapped viscera of the king takes the form of mummiform figure of the king in the nemes headcloth fronted by cobra of the north and vulture of the south. On the chin the curled beard of divinity and the hands grasp a crook and a flail symbols of royal authority. On the sides are figures of Wadjet and Nekhbet as birds, in the talons the goddesses hold shen rings. The coffinettes are adorned to look as if they are covered with feathers (rishi style).

On the interior of the coffinette’s lid is engraved an image of the goddess Nut standing on the hieroglyph for the sky, her winged arms outstretched to protect the king on his journey to the next world. On the inside of the lower half of the coffin are inscriptions also designed to guard the king on his trip to the afterlife.

HDVideo:Tutankhamun’s Burial Treasures: The Canopic Shrine, Chest and Jars

(Read the transcript on the video page)

You can watch more fantastic videos on Heritage Key’s Video Page including Zahi Hawasss insights into the death of King Tut, as well as Kathleen Martinezs hunt for the tomb of Cleopatra. Additionally, you can find out more about Ancient Egypt on Heritage Key, as well as being able to explore the Valley of the Kings and the fascinating KV62 – King Tutankhamun’s tomb – in 3D in our exciting virtual experience! Also be sure to keep up to date on all new postings about Sandro’s photography from Egypt by subscribing to our feed, simply by entering your email address above.

Sandro Vannini’s Photography – The Canopic Chest

The Canopic Chest of King Tut was recently featured in a video with Dr Janice Kamrin, as she walks around the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and explains what this beautiful artefact would have been used for (Skip to the video by clicking here). As one of the treasures of the Cairo Museum, it was photographed in stunning detail by the established Egyptology photographer Sandro Vannini, and the images are bought to the Internet by Heritage Key.

Discovered in the Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62), it is one of several Egyptian alabaster artefacts that were found by famed explorer Howard Carter. Funded on his expeditions in theValley of the Kings by Lord Carnarvon, Carter stumbled upon the entrance of KV62 and would go on to excavate one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history.

‘Canopic Chest’ Slideshow

Heritage Key is working with Sandro and bringing his extensive catalogue of beautiful photography of Egyptian antiquities onto the world wide web, which we’re sure will fascinate even the most hardcore Egyptologist! To watch a slideshow of the Canopic Chest, simply click any of the thumbnails below.

See it for yourself in King Tut Virtual

But it doesn’t stop there, as you can also visit King Tut Virtual and see digital recreations of many of the famous artefacts from KV62, walk through the Valley of the Kings, explore the banks of the River Nile in Ancient Egyptian times and even see more of Sandro Vannini’s photography in the virtual gallery.

Sandro Vannini’s Photography

Over a decade of experience in photographing the magnificent artefacts and tombs of Egypt has honed the skills of Sandro, and given him the experience required to capture the beautiful details of the Canopic Chest. The equipment used to take the amazing photographs is obviously important too, and Sandro used a Hasselblad ELD Ixpress 528C camera to take these images. You can also see more of Sandro’s fantastic photography in his new book with the Director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass, “The Lost Tombs of Thebes:Life in Paradise” as well as reading about Sandro’s experiences of shooting the photographs in Thebes on Heritage Key, and watching the video about the Lost Tombs of Thebes featuring Dr Zahi Hawass and Dr Janice Kamrin. Sandro will at the British Museum, London together with Dr. Zahi Hawass on December 8th to promote the new art photography book ‘A Secret Voyage’!

Don’t miss out on new treasures!

See More Amazing Photography by Sandro

Have a look at some of the other stunning photographs by Sandro Vannini here at Heritage Key:

Ask Sandro

We’ll be sitting down with our favourite photographer for an extended chat soon, so if you have any questions for Sandro we’ll send the answers straight to you!

But for those of you who cant make the trip to the Cairo Museum to see the Canopic Chest, Heritage Key offers these stunning photographs by Sandro Vannini which capture the stunning Canopic Chest from the Tomb of King Tutankhamun. But there’s more: you can visit virtual replicas of Tutankhamun treasures in the Heritage Key VX King Tut exhibition, which features a virtual replica of many other breath-taking artefacts such as the Golden Mask of King Tutankhamun.

The Canopic Chest

The Canopic Chest was used as part of the mummification process (You can learn more about mummification by watching this video with Dr Zahi Hawass) whereby vital organs would be removed from the deceased and placed for preservation in the Canopic Jar.The vital organs (known as viscera) were seperately stored inside four jars – the liver, stomach, intestines and lungs each being prepared for the afterlife.

The Ancient Egyptians considered the heart to be the person’s soul, and it was therefore left inside the body so in the afterlife it could be weighed against the Feather of Ma’at, as described in the Book of the Dead. Overseen by the god Anubis, if the heart was heavier from sins than the feather, it was be devoured by the beast Ammit, and the soul would forever be gone. A heart lighter than the feather would successfully pass onto the afterlife.

When it was discovered, the Canopic Shrine had no bottom to it, but instead contained the Canopic Chest, carved from a single block of calcite. The interior of the chest has markings to divide the space into four sections – one for each jar – and has hollow grooves carved into the base.

The shape of the Canopic Shrine, when complete with its lid, reflects the same shape of the Outer Shrine and canopy. Each corner of the shrine is also carved with the same four protecting goddesses who also appear on the Canopic Chest that it was housed within.

The facial features of the human headed stoppers are not thought to match the face of King Tutankhamun, and it’s possible that the Canopic Chest was never originally intended for the Boy King. Some archaeologists have hypothesised that it was actually created for Tut’s predecessor Ankhkheperure, although it is unclear how it ended up in KV62.

HDVideo:Tutankhamun’s Burial Treasures: The Canopic Shrine, Chest and Jars

(Read the transcript on the video page)

Preserving King Tut’s Guts: The Canopic Shrine and Jars Introduced

As we described in our recent handy guide to how to make a mummy, the ancient Egyptians went to great and grizzly lengths to ensure that every last bit of a body was efficiently preserved. The internal organs had to be removed in order to effectively dry out a corpse. They would then be individually wrapped and preserved separately in canopic vessels.

King Tuts guts in keeping with the generally lavish and wondrous spirit of his mummification and burial were given extra-special treatment, as we discover in the first instalment of the new four part video series, Tuts Treasures. Shot by Nico Piazza, and featuring still photography by Sandro Vannini, it examines some of the finest artefacts found by Howard Carter in KV62 in the 1920s.

Prominent Egyptologist and archaeologist Dr Janice Kamrin (who you should watch in this video examining the Lost Tombs of Thebes with Dr Zahi Hawass) introduces interviewer Sharif Shoaier to the spectacular canopic shrine, in its display case in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Within this beautiful artefact, the Boy Kings viscera were elaborately laid to rest.

The Canopic Shrine

The lungs, intestine, stomach and liver needed to be removed in the process of mummification, Dr Kamrin notes, because they contained moisture and it added to the speed of the decay. The canopic shrine which stands almost as tall as a man and is made from solid gold was the outer casing of a nest of special ritual containers for Tutankhamuns regal innards.

Its ornately decorated, with lots of inscriptions and carvings of gods and goddesses (in both human and animal form) including the four sons of Horus Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi and Qebehsenuef, who were essentially the canopic jars personified.

Two deities that Kamrin highlights are matriarchal patron of nature and magic Isis (who handily has her name etched into her head) and Kamrins personal favourite, Serqet, the scorpion goddess (one of our Top Ten Animal Gods and Goddesses).

Among the inscriptions, quite remarkably are tips on how to put the canopic shrine together, IKEA-style. They took this stuff apart then put it back together using assembly instructions, says Kamrin. They really did think of everything, the ancient Egyptians.

The Canopic Chest

Kamrin next leads Shoaier and the camera to the canopic chest, located in an adjacent display case. This brilliant white box and lid both carved from solid blocks of Egyptian alabaster were found placed inside the canopic shrine.

They loved to nest things; its all layers of protection, Kamrin explains. The more you protect everything the better. The four individual viscera were stored in this chest, after they had been wrapped then sealed in beautiful inlaid miniature gold coffinettes (which can be viewed in the Egyptian Museums jewellery room). The canopic chest too is carved with goddesses, and inscribed with spells, which would be spoken by the goddesses, stating that they are protecting the gods which are protecting the viscera themselves.

This beautiful shrine was protecting the entrance to the treasury, Kamrin notes at the end, just after the credits in the video. She then neatly tees-up the forthcoming second instalment of Tuts Treasures. Shall we go look at Anubis? Kamrin asks, referring to the jackal-headed god which Egyptian mythology associated with mummification and the afterlife. A large statue of Anubis guarded Tuts tomb. To be continued… reads the final caption watch this space!

HD Video: Tut’s Treasures (Part 1/4) – The Canopic Shrine

(Read the transcript on the video page)

You can receive instant notification of the arrival of future instalments of King Tuts Treasures by signing-up to Heritage Keys RSS feed. Doing so will also give you an immediate heads up when we post other top videos on the site recent gems have included Zahi Hawasss insights into the death of King Tut, a look at Kathleen Martinezs hunt for the tomb of Cleopatra and a chat with Lord Norwich on history’s great cities. Check out Heritage Keys video page for all our videos to date.