* * * * * A peculiarly Etruscan type of vase which deserves some separate attention is that known as the Canopic jar, resembling the so-called κάνωποι in which the Egyptians placed the bowels of their mummies.[2310] These Etruscan _canopi_ are rude representations of the human figure, the heads, which are often attired in Egyptian fashion, forming the covers. The eyes are sometimes inlaid, and the female heads have large movable earrings and other adornments. In the tombs it was customary to place these vases on round chairs of wood, bronze, or terracotta. An example may be seen in the Etruscan Room of the British Museum, where the chair is plated with bronze, covered with archaic designs in _repoussé_ relief,[2311] and another is shown in Fig. 181. Similar chairs were discovered in the _Tomba delle Sedie_ at Cervetri; but the Canopic jars are almost confined to Chiusi. The type finds a parallel in the so-called “owl-vases” from the second city at Hissarlik (Vol. I. p. 258), in which the same combination of the vase-form with the human figure is to be observed. The lower portion of the jar was intended to receive the ashes of the dead, like the _ossuaria_, this method of placing the mortal remains of a person within a representation of himself being peculiarly Egyptian. Signor Milani[2312] has traced the origin of the Canopic jars to the funeral masks placed over the faces of the dead, which are sometimes found in the earliest Etruscan tombs. This practice may have been derived from Mycenae, where Schliemann found gold masks in the shaft-tombs of the Agora; but in Etruria the examples are all in bronze, except a few of terracotta.[2313] A gradual transition can be observed from the mask, at first placed on the corpse and then attached to the urn containing its ashes, to the head fashioned in the round and assimilated with the cover; while in later times a further transition may be observed from the vase with human head to the complete human figure. Finally, its place was taken by the reclining effigies on the covers of the sarcophagi (p. 320). The earliest jars are found in the _pozzo_ tombs of the eighth century, the evolution of the head modelled in the round being accomplished by the seventh century, and the archaic types last down to about 550 B.C., when the severe perfected style comes in, to be succeeded by the free style of the fifth century, after which time the Canopic jars cease to be manufactured. [Illustration: From _Mus. di ant. class._ FIG. 181. CANOPIC JAR IN CHAIR PLATED WITH BRONZE. ]