Funerary Practices Flashcards
Why was mummification used?
To preserve the body (khet) so that the deceased’s eternal soul (ka) would be able to reanimate it in the afterlife.
New Kingdom Egypt
It’s just a date
1539 - 1075 BCE
Old Kingdom Egypt
It’s just a date
2686 - 2181 BCE
Ushabti
Grave Goods
Magical figures that came to life when the deceased were required to do work in the afterlife, taking their place and leaving the deceased to enjoy their leisure time.
How would the semi-poor be buried?
The poor would be wrapped in a mat and buried in the simplest graves, along with some special possessions or pots holding foods, that they had when they were alive.
Plates carved with the shapes of food could be used as magical substitutes for offerings.
How would the poorest be buried?
For the poorest of people, the body was buried in hot sand which would dry it out and mummify it in a natural way. This same method could be used with a space sectioned out with five clay slabs or rocks for an open space.
When did mummification begin to be performed (intentionally)?
About 2600 BCE.
Fourth and Fifth Dynasties of Old Kingdom Egypt.
The Opening of the Mouth Ceremony
Egyptians believed that the dead needed to eat, drink, talk, breathe and see in the afterlife, but also the ceremony helped release the person’s Ba from their body to reunite with their Ka and form the Akh.
It could be performed by a priest or son of the deceased, wither of which had to be clothed in leopard skin. It also involved the recitation of the Book of the Dead and sacrifice of a calf.
The Book of the Dead
Funerary Texts
Collection of texts used by the ancient Egyptians to help the dead through the Duat, consisting of formulas, hymns, incantations, magical words and prayers written on papyrus paper.
The version seen today was used from the beginning of the New Kingdom and Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-50 BCE), but written over a period of a thousand years by different priests.
Placed in the coffin or burial chamber.
Canopic Jars
The body’s organs were preserved in special containers and kept next to the mummies.
Note: After 1000 BCE, the internal organs were generally wrapped and returned to the body rather than being placed in the canopic jars.
Imsety
Grave Goods: Canopic Jars
Human head.
Guarded the liver.
Human drinks alcohol ⟶ guards liver
Qebehsenuf
Grave Goods: Canopic Jars
Falcon head.
Guarded the intestines.
Qebby the Falcon eats entrails ⟶ intestines
Hapy
Grave Goods: Canopic Jars
Baboon head.
Guarded the lungs.
Baboons like to breathe ⟶ lungs
Duamutef
Grave Goods: Canopic Jars
Jackal head.
Guarded the stomach.
Jackals eat food ⟶ stomach
Sarcophagus
Grave Goods
A stone, wood or gold container used to hold a coffin, often elaborately decorated with paintings, carvings and the name (ren) of the deceased.
- Sarcophagi of pharaohs e.g. Tutankhamun would depict the pharaohs with the symbols of power (like crook and flail) symbolising the royal office they held in life.
- Sarcophagi were carved to look like
Golden Funerary Masks
Grave Goods
A death mask was created so that the soul would recognise its body to return to it safely and to guard the body from evil spirits.
Boats for the Afterlife
Grave Goods
Intricately designed wooden boats went inside the tombs of pharaohs as substitutes for large-scale vessels in the afterlife that would carry the pharaoh to the heavens in the afterlife
Mummification of Animals
Animals with religious significance were also often mummified, especially in later dynasties. These included baboons, cats, birds and crocodiles.
In early dynasties, bulls were particularly sacred and had their own cemetery at Sakkara.
Mask of Anubis
Anubis was closely associated with mummification and embalming so priests would wear a mask made of cartonnage (linen, mud plaster and straw) resembling him.
Burial of Royals in Old Kingdom Egypt
Mummified in a 70 day process and placed into a decorated sarcophagus.
Put onto a special platform to be moved by people and oxen to the Valley Temple and then to their pyramid.
Choice of Burial Location for Pharaohs
Old Kingdom: Pyramids of Giza, Nile Delta
New Kingdom: Valley of the Kings
The Great Place/Valley of the Kings
In the hills of a barren tract on the Nile’s west bank, west of Luxor. The west was considered the land of death, where the sun set, and Ra died every day.
Chosen to place pharaohs closer to their dynastic roots in the south.
The sacred site was charged with enough solar energy to transform the pharaoh from a man to god.
A series of underground mausoleums that no one was meant to see for pharaohs, queens, high priests and other elites of the 18-20th dynasties.
Mummification Process (12 steps)
- Shave the body and wash it with wine and spices.
- Remove the brain by inserting special hooked instruments up through the nostrils to pull out bits of brain tissue.
- Remove the organs through a cut in the left side of the abdomen, leaving only the heart.
- Separately embalm and preserve the stomach, liver, lungs and intestines in canopic jars.
- Treat the body with natron (carbonate salt collected from the edges of desert lakes).
- Remove the natron from the skin after 40 days and fill the body cavities with linen, natron pouches, herbs, sawdust, sand, or chopped straw.
- Cover the skin with a resinous coating.
- Wind long strips of linen around the body, wrapping each finger and toe separately before wrapping the entire hand or foot.
- Place amulets among the wrappings and prayers and write magical words on some of the linen strips.
- Place a mask of the person’s face between the layers of head bandages.
- Coat the body with warm resin intermittently and proceed wrapping again until the entire body is completely wrapped.
- Cover the head of the mummy with a portrait mask.
Place the mummy into a series of gilded wooden coffins and then into a sarcophagus.
Significance of Bread
Grave Goods
Wheat and barley were used to pay workers and could be traded, the mold even being useful for medicine for containing penicillin. The diet staple was often added to tombs.
Deir el-Medina
A burial site for the tombs of the royal tomb-builders and their overseers, meaning they were very unique in design and decoration because they designed them for each other.
Architecture of Royal Tombs
The architecture is meant to simultaneously practically dissuade robbers with elaborate channels and blocked doorways, and symbolically imitate the Duat, with the passage of Ra (corridors), Hall of Separation/entrance to the Underworld (antechamber) and House of Gold (burial chamber).
