BACKGROUND

While attending the 15th National Conference on Advances in Perinatal and Paediatric Nutrition at the University of Stanford, California, July 2001, at an evening social event at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts, I chanced upon the small but remarkable collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts from the Stanford Family Collection.

CANOPIC JARS

In the University of Stanford collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts are two alabaster canopic jars dating from the 18th dynasty (1539–1295 BC) at the time of the New Kingdom. One had a head stopper shaped like a falcon (fig 1) representing Kebeh-senu-ef, one of the four sons of Horus acting as a guardian god of the embalmed guts of the deceased. A very similar name is given at the British Museum for the same god, namely Qebhsenuef. These four sons of Horus were the genii who guarded the north, south, east, and west. Remarkably, the ancient Maya of central America also had four deities upholding heaven at the four points of the compass. The Maya also used funerary jars called after these gods.

Nunn,¹ in his remarkable account of ancient Egyptian medicine, states that the embalmers showed great technical expertise …