Which jackal-headed god was the god of embalming and the dead? Anubis was the answer. He protected graves, oversaw funerary rites, and guided the deceased through the dangerous journey to the afterlife.
Anubis was usually shown as a black canine or as a man with a canine head. His black color carried symbolic meaning: it suggested both the darkening of a corpse during embalming and the fertile black soil of the Nile, which represented regeneration. His association with cemeteries may reflect the presence of jackals and other wild canids around ancient burial grounds.
Anubis was especially connected with mummification and the embalming booth. In the Weighing of the Heart scene, he operates or attends the scales that compare a person’s heart with the feather of Ma’at. Osiris, rather than Anubis, became the principal ruler of the underworld during the Middle Kingdom, so the two gods should not be treated as interchangeable. Anubis was the embalmer and guide; Osiris was the dead king and judge.