Statue of Anubis as a Jackal

The most famous statue of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming, was found in Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. It shows a sleek black jackal crouching on a gilded shrine, ears pricked, alert and watchful. The figure is carved from wood, coated in black resin, with gold-leaf ears, eyebrows, and collar. It guarded the entrance to the treasury chamber, positioned to protect the pharaoh's canopic shrine.

Howard Carter found the statue wrapped in a linen shirt dated to the seventh year of Akhenaten's reign. The jackal form connects to real animal behavior: wild jackals and dogs scavenged near desert cemeteries, which the Egyptians interpreted as guardianship of the dead. Anubis played a central role in Egyptian funerary practice, overseeing mummification and guiding souls through the underworld. The statue is now displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.