In our History topic, we found out that the Ancient Egyptians mummified their Pharaohs’ bodies and during this process they pulled out the main organs. The organs were stored in Canopic Jars: Duamutef with the head of a jackal protected the stomach, Qebhsebbuef with the head of a falcon protected the intestines, Hapy with the head of a baboon protected the lungs, Imetsy with the head of a human protected the liver. This was to make sure that they had them for the afterlife heart was left in the body as it was believed that it would need to be weighed in the afterlife, this would determine whether the person had lived a good life or not. The brain was considered a minor, unimportant organ and was therefore, thrown onto the floor.
We made our own Canopic Jars using Air Drying Clay. For the pot, we used the coiling technique by rolling the clay into a long sausage shape and formed a circle. Each coil was placed on top and smoothed out. The head of the pot was sculpted and manipulated into form without joining.