Anubis Shrine

The Anubis Shrine was part of the burial equipment of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose tomb in the Valley of the Kings was discovered almost intact in 1922 by Egyptologists led by Howard Carter.

[3] The statue of Anubis, depicted in animal form as a recumbent jackal, is attached to the roof of the shrine.

The insides of the ears, eyebrows, rims of the eyes, collar, and the band knotted around the neck are worked in gold leaf.

Made of cedar, the jackal once had inlaid eyes which are now missing, and was painted black with a gilded plaster collar.

[5] The Anubis statue was wrapped in a linen shirt which was from the seventh regnal year of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, according to an ink inscription on it.

[4] Between the front legs sat an ivory writing palette inscribed with the name of Akhenaten's eldest daughter, Meritaten.

The inscriptions invoke two manifestations of Anubis: Imiut (Jmj wt – "He who is in his wrappings") and Khenti-Seh-netjer (Ḫntj-sḥ-nṯr – "The first of the god's hall").

It is therefore presumed that the Anubis shrine was used in the funerary procession of the Pharaoh before being placed in front of the canopic chest in the Treasury.

The statue of the jackal lying on the shrine is in the same posture and form as one hieroglyph (Gardiner list: E16) for Anubis.

Floorplan of the tomb of Tutankhamun
The Anubis Shrine in situ at the entrance of the Treasury
Portable shrine of Anubis, exposition in Paris
Anubis seated on a tomb-shrine, symbolizing his protection of the necropolis