Canopic Jar Lid

Canopic jar of Userhat Limestone Egypt (Valley of the Kings, tomb KV 45) Dynasty 18, reigns of Thutmose Ill to Amenhotep Ill, 1400–1352 BC Gift of Theodore M. Davis Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East 1902.50.1A Canopic jars held internal organs {lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines) from a mummified body, and came in sets of four. This beautifully carved jar was one of three excavated in the Valley of the Kings in 1902 by Egyptologist Howard Carter—who later discovered Tutankhamun' s tomb—and millionaire businessman Theodore M. Davis. In 2006, archaeologists discovered fragments of the fourth jar in a nearby tomb (KV 27). This jar is inscribed for “Userhat, Overseer of the fields of Amun.” He was one of the very few non-royal individuals to be buried in the Valley of the Kings. Carter found Userhat’s tomb, which had been reused at a later period, choked with debris and damaged by flooding. Low resolution scan