Continuity and Change

Question 1

Continuity: Royal Burial

Answer 1

Royal tombs always contained only the deceased.

Lavish edifices were built to honour dead royals, filled with gold treasures to accompany them to the afterlife.

Royal tombs consist of multiple parts.

Question 2

Continuity: Non-Royal Burial

Answer 2

Much less extravagant than the burials of royals (simple graves in the western desert).

Burial of grave goods indicate the persisting belief that the afterlife was a continuation of life on earth, requiring food and tools.

Question 3

Continuity: Architecture and Decor

Answer 3

Elaborate complexes for royal tombs.

Grave goods and depictions of the pantheon of deities to guide and care for the deceased.

Question 4

Continuity: Beliefs on the Afterlife

Answer 4

• Belief that afterlife was a continuation of life on earth persisted: grave goods continued to be put into graves
• Body preserved so that soul can enter the afterlife. If body destroyed, spirit could be lost
• Pantheon of deities essential to gaining entry into the afterlife

Question 5

Continuity: Mummification

Answer 5

• Bodies continued being treated with natron salt
• Organs placed in canopic jars
• Idea behind mummification unchanged: body home to soul

Question 6

Change: Royal Burial

Answer 6

Old Kingdom:
- Burial sites were mastabas (rectangular structures above tombs) or pyramids.
- Pharaohs were buried in pyramids, with two separate funerary sites for ritual activities of the mortuary cult.
- Smaller pyramids for queens and princesses and mastabas for high officials would surround the pharaoh’s pyramid.
- Only the pharaoh had access to funerary literature (The Pyramid Texts).

New Kingdom:
- Anthropoid coffin shape
- Ushabti statues provided for a leisurely afterlife.
- Pharaohs received rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
- The Book of the Dead became the standardised funerary text.

Question 7

Change: Non-Royal Burial

Answer 7

Old Kingdom:
- Coffins were uncommon and uninscribed unless wealthy, high officials.
- Burial goods were less common, often just a set of copper tools and vessels.
- Scroll with an image of the Last Judgement was common, though the wealthy could afford custom scrolls and others purchased ready-made.
- Mastabas could be constructed for the private and wealthy.
- Realistic statues included as a stand-in for the body, which would be buried deeper.

New Kingdom:
- Anthropoid coffin shape
- Number of ushabti increased to some reaching over 400.
- Objects for daily use began to be included in tombs until after Ramesses II’s rule.
- Access to funerary texts (The Book of the Dead, Coffin Text)

Question 8

Change: Architecture and Decor

Answer 8

NKE:

• Tomb architecture became more dynamic to outsmart theives and grave robbers: more traps, tunnels, dead ends
• Night security guards introduced (no evidence of this in Old Kingdom)

Basically in NKE they became more concerned with protecting the artefacts in the tombs

Question 9

Change: Beliefs on the Afterlife

Answer 9

OKE:

• Pharaoh associated with Ra, Ra higher than Pharaoh
• Afterlife used to belong exclusively to pharaohs

NKE:

• Pharaoh associated with Horus, Horus same level as Pharaoh
• Afterlife accessible to anyone who could afford their own Book of the Dead

Question 10

Change: Mummification

Answer 10

NKE:

• Mummification became more elaborate: canopic jars evolved from a square box split into 4 into 4 separate jars designed with god faces