Decontextualise to Decolonise: Jackle-Head Canopic Jar

Amanda Petersen from the Interior Architecture course at the University of Brighton writes about a Jackle-Head Canopic Jar as part of the Decontextualise to Decolonise project.

Canopic Jar: Case Number 6

Handle With Care

Duamutef’s jackal-headed jar once held the stomach of the dead. It was carefully placed in an Egyptian tomb to protect the body’s journey into the afterlife. It had a sacred purpose, entwined with ancient Egyptian culture and beliefs.

Now, a familiar glass jar rests precariously on a kitchen table. It sits in a light and modern room. No longer holding a stomach, it’s filled with cookies. A child reaches for the jar. As their fingers graze the delicate glass, it wobbles, losing balance.

Once a sacred object tied to death, it is now a symbol of life and nourishment.

What stories might artefacts tell today if they had never been taken? How might their meaning have changed in the hands of the people they were taken from?