Four completed canopic jar crafts in a line.

Make your own canopic jars

In Ancient Egypt, people believed that everyone had three different spirits: the ka (the life force), the ba (the personality), and the akh (the soul). In order for these three spirits to survive into the afterlife, the Ancient Egyptians believed that the dead body must be preserved. Embalming and mummification were the Egyptians’ answer to this problem!

When a person was mummified, their lungs, liver, intestines and stomach were put in special containers called canopic jars. Each organ was protected by a different Ancient Egyptian god. Make your own canopic jars with this fun activity!

Sally Hewitt, Project History: Egyptians (2013) Franklin Watts

Adult supervision is required.

Type of Activity : Crafting

How many people required (minimum) : 1

Safety Measures : Be careful using scissors!

Ages : All Ages

Time Required: 1 hour

Example images of the Egyptian gods who would sit atop canopic jars. The gods are Duametef, who has the head of a jackal, Hapi, who has the head of a baboon, Imsety, who has a human head, and Qebehsenuef, who has a falcon's head.

Step 1

(Egyptian god examples).
Drawing the head of an Egyptian god for the canopic jar decoration.

Step 2

The internal organs in each of your canopic jars will be protected by an Ancient Egyptian god. Copy the examples onto your sheets of cardboard – or look on the internet for more inspiration! Your gods will need to be drawn on top of a strip of cardboard that will wrap around the jars.
A drawing of the Egyptian god Qebehsenuef being coloured in.

Step 3

Colour in each of your pictures.
Drawings of Egyptian gods cut out with an attached strip of paper.

Step 4

Cut out each of your god pictures, and the strips of cardboard that they are attached to.
Dried pasta being coloured in red to make mock organs.

Step 5

Time to make your internal organs! Use your red and brown pens to colour in your dried pasta – you could soak them in cold tea, or coat them in paint if you want to get them really reddish brown!
Jars holding mock intestines and lungs.

Step 6

Cut your orange into four segments. Remove the flesh from two segments so that you are left with two lung-shaped pieces of orange peel (for really authentic mummified lungs, dry out the orange peel somewhere warm!). Put the ‘intestines’ in one jar, and the ‘lungs’ in another.
Jars holding the mock liver and stomach.

Step 7

The ‘liver’ is a used dried teabag, and the 'stomach' is a pink balloon that has been blown up and let down! Put these into the other two jars.
Hapi, the baboon-headed god canopic jar

Step 8

Using sticky tape, attach the correct god picture to each jar. Hapi, the baboon-headed god, protects the lungs (orange peel!).
Qebehsenuef, the falcon headed Egyptian god canopic jar

Step 9

Qebehsenuef, who has a falcon’s head, looks after the intestines (dried pasta ribbons!).

Step 10

Duametef, a jackal-headed god, protects the stomach (pink balloon!).
Canopic jar of Imsety, a god with a human face

Step 11

And Imsety, with the human face, looks after the liver (dried teabag!).
Four completed canopic jar crafts in a line.

Step 12

Your canopic jars are now complete! Take them to the nearest Egyptian tomb and bury them alongside a mummy… or, find somewhere to display them. We chose a shelf in the YAC HQ office!!