Mummification
The ancient Egyptians thought that the body would still live on earth after death. This was seen as an important part of the afterlife and a way for the dead to connect with the world. As a result of this idea, people felt the need to keep the body from breaking down, which led to the development of the complex practice of mummification.
When bodies from the past were buried in the sand, they often mummified naturally. After burial rooms were built around 3200 BCE, bodies were tried to stay alive artificially by being wrapped in linen bandages and sometimes also with plaster. During the Old Kingdom, a mixture of salts called natron was added to this, and the internal parts were also taken out.
Before the Middle Kingdom, plaster wasn’t used.
By the New Kingdom, it had become a normal method for the most important people. First, the brain, lungs, and belly viscera were taken out so that they could be preserved separately in “canopic” jars and chests. The body was then covered in natron and left that way for up to seventy days.
Once it was completely dry, it was wrapped in linen and given a mask that fit over the head. This was then put inside the grave. In some cases, the body parts were put in a rectangular sarcophagus made of stone or wood and put in the burial room with the person’s things. Over time, these morgue cases have changed a lot in how they look.
Because bodies were often found in a fetal position, the first tombs were rectangular and very short. During the Old Kingdom, the coffins got longer, and some eyes were added to one side so that the person lying on its left side could “see” out.
It was during the Middle Kingdom that mummy-shaped (or “anthropoid”) tombs began to form from the masks that some mummies wore at the time.
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By the beginning of the New Kingdom, these had pretty much replaced the old rectangle ones. They were usually made of wood, but sometimes they were made of stone. The decorations and small details on these things are always changing. One clear sign of change over time is the color scheme of the graves.
Also, the four canopic jars had stoppers with human heads at first, but by the middle of the New Kingdom, they had stoppers with the heads of different animals for each of the gods who were thought to protect the organs inside: humans had Imseti (liver), apes had Hapy (lungs), dogs had Duamutef (stomach), and falcons had Qebehsenuef (intestines).
Along with Anubis, the embalmer god, these gods and goddesses like Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Selqet are often shown on tombs and sarcophagi. The tomb should have had two parts: a closed burial room below ground (the substructure) and a place to make offerings above ground (the superstructure).
The place where the sacrifices were made could be the land above the grave, the area in front of a simple stela, or a large complex that stands alone or is cut into the rock. It could be above the grave or some distance away. At the upper level, family, friends, or priests left food or talked with the dead on feast days (Egyptians still visit tombs and have picnics with their families).
The building blocks of the tomb complex took on very different shapes depending on the time and place, but the main ideas were always the same: the chapel was built around a “false door,” which was the link between the living and the dead and allowed the spirit to leave the body.
Decorations on the superstructure typically focus on the deceased person’s life on earth, such as their favorite hobbies. On the other hand, when it was decorated, which happened only very rarely, the substructure focused on things like the Book of the Dead or lists of things to give to the dead.
The Egyptian funeral rituals began when the mummified body was taken from the embalmers to the tomb and carried there with the other items that belonged to the dead. In the procession were the person’s family and friends, priests, and, if the person had been rich, paid mourners. In the future, the spirit of the person who had died had a hard journey.
Before the spirit could get to its destination, the Hall of Judgment, it had to get past the guards of the different gates that stood in its way. A group of books about the afterlife, like the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead, helped people do this.
These spells were meant to fight the threats that stood between the dead person and their return. The last part of the torture was putting the feather of truth, order, and justice against the dead person’s heart, which was thought to be the seat of wisdom and knowledge.
If the scales were equal, the dead went before Osiris and went to a place that looked a lot like an idealized Egypt, where they would live forever. The soul of the dead person was sent into darkness if the heart was heavier than the feather. The heart was fed to a monster called the Devourer.
The guidebooks that the mourners gave out had magic in them and were meant to stop something like that from happening. Most of the time, these writings were put inside the coffin on papyrus, but sometimes they were written on the coffin or the walls of the tomb.
People thought that the spirit or soul had many parts, such as the ka and the ba. The latter was shown as a bird with a human head. This shape seems to have been how the spirit went to the spiritual world.
The ka was thought to have been formed at the same time as the body but to live on after the body died. During the burial rituals, gifts were made to the ka.
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