Anubis is most closely shown performing embalming for the dead in ancient Egyptian art. This association made him a divine protector of the body and a patron of the specialists who prepared corpses for burial.
Egyptian embalmers removed internal organs, treated the body with natron, dried it, and wrapped it in linen. The full process generally took about seventy days in elite funerary practice. Religious imagery presented Anubis as a sacred participant in this transformation rather than merely as a guardian standing near a tomb.
The jackal-headed god’s funerary role overlapped with the work of priests and embalmers, but Anubis was not the ruler of the afterlife. That role was primarily connected with Osiris. Anubis also appeared in scenes of judgment, where he supervised or assisted the weighing of the deceased person’s heart.