The ancient Egyptians strongly believed in an afterlife. They believed that their Ba, a certain aspect of the individual, lived on and could return to the mummified body. The body therefore had to be well preserved after death.
Egyptians could maintain the Ba of a deceased person by bringing food, drink, furniture, games or weapons into the tomb. The grave was therefore designed as his home, sometimes complete with a garden.
Mummify
When the Egyptians discovered that the tissue of a dead body did not last well, they developed a technique in which they used linen bandages. The deceased had to keep the likeness of a living person. It was not until the beginning of the first dynasty (c. 3100 BC) that the Egyptians first used techniques to better preserve the body. These early techniques were brief and consisted largely of wrapping the body with many layers of linen bandages. In the tombs of the second dynasty we find evidence of a real mummification process:processes by which the body did not completely decompose. The bodies of the first three dynasties were not really mummified, because they were only wrapped with linen bandages, whether or not soaked in resin.
Magic
In the Old Kingdom (3rd – 6th Dynasties; ca. 2686 – 2181 BC), especially at the beginning of the 4th Dynasty, we see the first evidence of deliberate attempts to counteract the decay of the body. The Egyptians did this by removing the soft internal organs from the body. By removing these, in particular the liver, intestines, stomach and lungs, the body cavity could be dried more quickly, which improved the chance of good preservation. Much evidence for this comes from the way tombs are designed. When the internal organs were removed, it was necessary to put them in a safe place in the grave. Since the organs were believed to reunite with the body through magic, separating the organs from the rest of the body was not seen as an obstacle to survival in the afterlife. A special niche was made in a wall of the burial chamber for the entrails wrapped in linen.
Lower circles
In the 5th and 6th Dynasties, even lower-class people could afford to wrap their entrails for protection. Their organs were packed in 'jars' and then placed in a wooden canoe box. These pitchers have no inscriptions and a simple convex stopper. Many of the graves in which the entrails were protected in this way no longer have a niche in the wall of the burial chamber. Only the entrails box was found to be sufficient protection.
Canoeing
In the Middle Kingdom (11th – 14th Dynasties; ca. 2040-1782 BC), the Egyptians usually treated the bodies in the same way as those of wealthy persons of the late Old Kingdom. This involved evisceration through an incision in the abdominal wall and filling of the body cavity with linen. During this period, the viscera were treated like little mummies; the entrails were anointed, wrapped with strips of linen and usually fitted with a miniature mummy mask. Despite the fact that few mummies have survived from graves from this period, the presence of eviscerated jars indicates that bodies were regularly eviscerated.
In the Middle Kingdom, these cisterns were in the form of four stone or earthenware jars with a stopper in the shape of a human head. The entrails jars with stoppers in the shape of a human head are usually called from the Greek Kanopen mentioned.
Section
In the New Kingdom (18th – 20th Dynasty; 1570 – 1070 BC), under Thuthmose III (18th Dynasty), a new way of eviscerating was introduced. Before then, in order to remove the entrails, the incision in the abdominal wall always consisted of a vertical cut on the left side of the body, but in the body of Thuthmose III and his successors up to the 20th Dynasty, the incision was made in a lower area :in a diagonal descending line from the hipbone to the pelvis.
In the case of Thutmose III, the incision is carefully stitched back together and the body cavity filled with linen. The canoe jars from the Tuthmosid period are often made of earthenware and the accompanying stoppers are shaped like a human head with a blue or blue-yellow striped wig. The faces were painted red or yellow depending on the owner of the pitchers, namely red for men and yellow for women.
After the 18th Dynasty there was a change in the shape of the stoppers. For the plugs were in the form of the heads of the four sons of Horus:Amset, Hapi, Duamutef and Kebehsenuef
Guardian goddesses of canoe jars
Along with the four sons of Horus, there were also four goddesses associated with the canoe jars:Nephthys, Neith, Isis, and Selket.
Isis Her name means seat or throne. She was the daughter of the earth god Geb and both sister and wife of Osiris. She was the mother of Horus and sister of Nephthys and Seth. The four sons of Horus were thus born of a relationship between Horus and his mother Isis.
Nephthys Nephthys is depicted as a woman with a basket on her head on the sign for palace, meaning 'Lord of the palace'. She was the daughter of Geb and Nut, the goddess of heaven, and a sister of Osiris, Isis and Seth.
Neith Protectress of the city of Sais, depicted as a woman with the crown of Lower Egypt on her head and a bow and arrows in her hand. Later, her attribute became a weaver shuttle. In that capacity she was the great weaver who weaved the world with her shuttle.
Selket Her symbol is the scorpion and as such she protected humans against bites from this animal.
Udjatoog
The climax of the mummification process was reached in the 21st Dynasty (1069 – 945 BC). During this period, filling material was used even under the skin of the limbs. Since the embalmer could only insert material up to the neck and the bottom of the legs through the incision in the abdomen, the treatment of a body therefore required more incisions in the skin. The feet were padded by means of incisions over the heels, the arms by means of incisions at the shoulder. The filling material varied from resin, grease, soda, linen and sawdust to mud and sand. During the mummification process, the abdominal cavity was often filled twice; a temporary filling of linen during the treatment with natron, with the aim of drying the fabric and, after removal of the first filling, a second permanent filling.
A gold plate was sometimes placed on the incision made by the embalmer to remove the entrails. In this picture the Udjatoog, which healed wounds, and the four patron gods of the canoes are engraved or inlaid.
Regression
From the 22nd dynasty there was a decline in the quality of mummification. The entrails were packed in canoe jars, but could also be returned to the body or wrapped in linen and placed between the mummy's legs. Not all pitchers were actually functional. When the entrails were placed back in the body, people often gave a set of counterfeit can open jars in the grave. This was probably done for traditional reasons. For the same reasons, canisters were sometimes placed with mummies without the entrails removed. Despite the entrails being replaced in a body, each internal organ was often accompanied by a small figure, usually made of wax, of the associated son of Horus.