Viscera figure with human head (Imseti)

Third Intermediate Period

ca. 1000–945 B.C.

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 130

A set of four roughly-made figures (25.3.156a–d) were found inside the mummy of Nesitaset. Each figure represents one of the Four Sons of Horus, the deities who both embodied and protected the internal organs. Nesitaset's organs had been removed, divided into seven packages, dessicated, wrapped in linen, and placed back in the body. This figure represents the human-headed Imseti, usually seen as the guardian of the liver. This one of two human-headed figures found in Nesitaset's mummy; normally she should have had a falcon-headed figure representing Qebehsenuef, guardian of the intestines.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Title: Viscera figure with human head (Imseti)
Period: Third Intermediate Period
Dynasty: Dynasty 21, second half
Date: ca. 1000–945 B.C.
Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Deir el-Bahri, Tomb MMA 60, Chamber, Burial of Nesitaset (Ch1), MMA excavations, 1923–24
Medium: Mud, wax
Dimensions: H. 7.4 × W. 2.5 × D. 1.5 cm (2 15/16 × 1 × 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1925
Object Number: 25.3.156d
Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

More Artwork

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Viscera figure with jackal head (Duamutef), Mud, wax — Viscera figure with jackal head (Duamutef)
ca. 1000–945 B.C.

Viscera figure with human head (Imseti), Mud, wax — Viscera figure with human head (Imseti)
ca. 1000–945 B.C.

Viscera figure with baboon head (Hapy)

ca. 1000–945 B.C.

Viscera figure with falcon head (Qebehsenuef)

ca. 1000–945 B.C.

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