Death and Burial Ancient Egypt

Death and Burial - SUMMARY
KEY CONCEPTS
- Afterlife beliefs was central to all Egyptian funerary practices for royals and non-royals in NK
- Nature and quality of funerary practices depended on one’s social class
- Most elaborate funerary processions made by royals and nobles
- Preparations guaranteed a resting place for their spirit for all time and a place for their mortuary cult to be maintained by relatives
Osirian Burial
- Osiris’ status as the god of resurrection rose significantly with the democratisation of religion
- By the NK, the pharaoh became identified with Osiris as well as king’s subjects
- Key elements of Osirian burial that ensured resurrection and eternal life:
Mummification
Correct funerary equipment
Funeral with appropriate ritual
Afterlife Concepts
- Egyptians believed that individuals had several parts to their personalities/spirit
Ka (represented as a pair of upraised hands)
the ka = individual’s creative life force; a ‘double’ that caused body to live
Ba (represented as a human-headed bird)
Ba is the spirit force/power of an individual’s personality
Akh (represented by the ibis or phoenix)
The akh is the fully resurrected form of the deceased in the afterlife
Funerary Texts
- These texts reveal that the afterlife of royals and non-royals had dangerous obstacles which they had to overcome by magic
- 18th Dynasty texts included:
The Book of the Dead (chapters of Coming Forth by Day)
The Amduat (the book ‘that which is in the Underworld’)
The ‘Litany of Re’
The Royal Afterlife
- Goal of the king’s journey was to join the gods and become one with them
- King’s afterlife involved Solar and Osirian beliefs where the king became both Re and Osiris
- Solar belief
The king’s journey from death to rebirth paralleled the nightly journey of the sun which was born again each day; represented in the Amduat (royal text)
- Osirian belief
Deceased king became one with Osiris
Osirian elements of burial incl. mummification process, mummiform coffins, funeral mask, shabtis, canopic equipment
Non-royal (commoner) afterlife
- Main goal was to pass ‘Judgment of the Dead’ (or ‘Judgement before Osiris’) which involved ‘Weighing of the Heart’
- Once test was passed, the deceased was declared maat kheru (‘true of voice’)
- Deceased was then admitted to the realm of Osiris called the ‘Fields of Reeds’ (or ‘Fields of Yaru’ or ‘Aaru’)
Equipping the tomb for the afterlife
- Tomb was known as ‘the house of the ka’ and needed to be equipped with preparations for the ka’s use in the afterlife
- Most important preparations was food and drink and other daily life necessities
- Shabti figures were also placed in the tomb  they were the servants of the dead
The Funeral
- Funeral began with procession of mourners who accompanied the mummy, lying in a boat shaped bier, on its journey across the Nile to ‘the beautiful west’
- Procession incl. carrying food and drink for the funeral banquet, possessions of the deceased and funerary equipment to be placed in the tomb
- Muu dancers along with the lector priest who read the beautification prayers which would ensure the deceased became an akh (justified spirit)
‘Opening of the Mouth’ ceremony
- This was the most important ritual that guaranteed the deceased’s entry into the afterlife and was performed on the mummy at the entrance to the tomb
- The sem-priest used many ritual implements, incl. the adze to touch the eyes, ears and mouth of the mummy; this restored bodily functions for use in the afterlife
KEY TERMS

- Osirian afterlife  Fields of Reeds
- Solar belief  Journey with Re
- Funerary Texts (The Amduat, The Book of the Dead, The Litany of Re)
- Ka, Ba, Akh
- Opening of the Mouth Ceremony and funeral procession
- Resurrection/rebirth and eternal life
- Mummification
- Funerary equipment  sarcophagus, shabtis, canopic chest, etc
- Dryts, muu dancers, lector priest, tekenu, sem-priest
- Judgment of the Dead
- Weighing of the Heart
- Adze
- Maat kheru

Death and Burial – 5 Sources

The Book of the Dead of Tjenena – 18th Dynasty

Papyrus showing the ba, in the form of a bird with a human head, hovering over a corpse

The Sarcophagus of Merymosi, Viceroy of Kush, Son of Amenhotep III

at the top is Isis who has wings spread out representing protection

An Adze found in Djeser-Djeseru – From the reign of Hatshepsut

on the side is the cartouche of Hatshepsut
used in the Opening of the Mouth ceremony

Scenes of hours of the Amduat in the tomb of Amenhotep II

Schist heart amulet of Amenhotep

the front is an image of a scarab beetle and the back is spell 30B from the Book of the Dead