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Well known egyptian art
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Ancient Egyptian Art: The Reasoning Behind Burying the Dead with Treasure. Scholars, artists, and educators have always been great admirers of ancient Egyptian art; however, the notion that art is just made to function as art was non-existent in ancient Egypt times. Every artifact that has been found was created for a purpose and to serve as something figuratively or symbolically within the ancient Egyptian culture. Specifically, the treasures that are frequently found within an Egyptian tomb are the most elaborate and meaningful. The ancient Egyptians had an intricate tradition of burial customs that they believed were required to ensure their reincarnation after death. The ancient Egyptians had a very complex polytheistic religion that played an enormous importance within their culture. They developed funerary concepts based off of their polytheistic beliefs. Everything the ancient Egyptians had done in their lives dictates whether or not they will achieve the ability to become reincarnated. To help reinsure that they reach the afterlife; they surround themselves with objects that help them on their journey after death. There is an entire process of the body becoming mummified before it is even placed in the tomb with these funerary objects. There are two stages to the process of mummification (example of Egyptian mummy above). When an important figure has passed, they need to embalm the body. The body is washed with palm wine and then rinsed with water from the Nile River. Next, an incision is made and the organs are removed, washed in natron, and placed into sacred jars called canopic jars (example in photo below). A large hook is used to remove the brain through a nostril. The body is then covered and stuffed with natro... ... middle of paper ... ... changed. They became known as Hem (servants or slaves) and were meant to help fulfill all of the duties in which the deceased had to do while on his journey to the afterlife. Multiple ushabtis would be packed into sacred boxes inside the tomb. There is no doubt that scholars, artists, and educators remain undoubtedly amazed by the immense collection of treasures that are consistently found within ancient Egyptians tombs. There is true meaning and history behind each artifact that has been found; collectors still see these priceless items as art, and many forget that they once served the main purpose in the afterlife. Everything in the ancient Egyptian culture was meant to serve their highest deities and gods. They created treasures to ensure that their lives would mean something, and many forget to reflect on the purpose of art or an object in general.
Interestingly, X-rays reveal that the mummy case of Paankhenamun does in fact contain a mummy inside dating back to the years of c. 945 – 715 B.C. The practice of mummification was the Egyptian people’s way of preserving the spirits of the Gods/Goddesses and royalty. The idea was that when these beings came back to life, they would be preserved and well prepared for their next lives. By the time of the New Kingdom, the Egyptians already had developed techniques of mummification, which were done under a priest’s supervision (Stokstad 114), and since Paankhenamun was the priest of Amun, he was most likely was in charge of these procedures.
This changed throughout time and it became a normal practice for loved one’s in Egypt. The Coffin of Tentkhonsu was for an elite member, when focused on the drawings on the outside of the coffin, it conveys a narrative story. On the outside of the coffin there’s scenes depicting the passage to netherworld and to finalize in the rebirth of the mummy. There’s depictions of judgment of the heart, in which two helpers of the gods, weight the soul, to which makes a determination if the individual has the right to salvation and actual rebirth. In the inside there’s scenes showing salvation process and what it appears to be Tentkhonsu rebirth.
The history and tradition of Egypt is one of the most greatly studied and admired of all past world civilizations. The lure of the pyramids and the specter of the sphinx have led many archeologists to dedicate his/her life to unraveling the mysteries of ancient Egyptian culture. Arguably, the most captivating aspect of Egypt’s past is that of mummification. Why did the Egyptians mummify their dead? What beliefs did the Egyptians have regarding the after life? What portion of the Egyptian civilization was mummified? What was the Book of the Dead? This is a mere sampling of the questions that come to my mind when I think of ancient Egyptian culture. I hope to lay forth answers to these questions and many more in the following pages dedicated to the history and purpose behind Egyptian mummification.
It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left him nearly dead. Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing and no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive. To this day Dave Pelzer still suffers from lingering pychological effects. The willful infliction of pain and suffering upon children is known as child abuse and is treated by society as a serious crime. Children are so extremely vulnerable and defenseless, it is thought, that no excuse is possible for mistreating them. Even so, abuse is believed to be widespread. Despite strict laws against it, it sometimes goes unreported and unpunished. Perpetrators of child abuse are most often the child’s own parents. A study done in 2005 showed 79.4 percent of perpetrators were parents, and 6.8 percent were other relatives. Almost 1 out of every 100 children in the United States are abused as a child and an average of 5 children die everyday from child abuse (USDHHS). Some cases may be more extreme then others, but child abuse still has a dramatic effect on a person’s life as it continues to effect the victim through their adoloscence and into their adult hood. Not only does child abuse affect a person’s relationship life, but structuring them on who they become in life by altering specific triggers in their brain. What effects does child abuse have on a child’s life from their adolescence and into their adulthood?
The elements that will be focused on are the multiple functions of the tomb and rituals, specifically the mummification of bodies. Ancient Egyptian tombs had many functions; the main function being to hold the bodies of the dead. Tombs were typically built during a person’s lifetime and were ready by their time of death (Olson, 2009). Before bodies were put in the tombs, they underwent a process called mummification to help preserve the body and keep it intact. The tomb was also a place where family members could come and visit the deceased. In the early years, tomb structures were very simple; they consisted only of one chamber (Grajetzki, 2003: 3-4). Later on, façade tombs were built— which consisted of two parts; an “underground chamber for the dead and the superstructure built above the ground, over the shaft and the burial chamber” (Grajetzki, 2003: 8). Next, the Egyptian tombs and ...
The time period for Egyptian mummification is from their Predynastic Period (4650-3050 BC) until after the New Kingdom (1069 BC-395 AD). The Egyptians believed in Polytheism, which the religion of worshiping more than one god. Since they believed in more than one god, they believed in Osiris, the earthbound god of the dead, and Re, the sun god. These two gods were critical to the Egyptians, because they counted on those two gods to lead people into the afterlife. In order to achieve the afterlife, a proper burial had to take place for the dead. The Table of Sinuhe, a twelfth dynasty text, described the preparation for a funeral for someone who is elite in Egypt, which included: constructing the grave on an elite location, with both a public chapel and a private burial chamber. The Egyptians did this to preserve the name of the deceased, and their objects that were given to the deceased to help guide them to the afterlife. The family of the deceased then needed to choose which of the three embalming processes was right for them. There were three types of mummification processes: there was the most expensive and most elaborate process; the second way contained some of the steps from the first way to embalm a person, but was very limited; and the last way would be the cheapest and least elaborate way to embalm someone. The embalmer was astute man, who was respected and had the same privileges as the priests did. Nevertheless, this belief in life after death affected the population of Egypt and their art, architecture, technology, and their legal practices, which would be that no one could do any damage to a dead body. Historians find all this information from two writers, who wrote different pieces of text on mummification.
The funerary rituals introduced by the Egyptians were the most intricate, spiritual rites in their times and, perhaps, even to this day. Their elaborate customs, tombs, and gifts to the dead were representative of their pious, devoted nature. Albeit not all were as imposing as the oldest and still remaining Seven Wonder of the World, the Pyramids of Giza, all were meaningful and sacred. The Egyptians, highly reverent of their dead, adopted ornate, religious burial practices to fit to every member of their society.
While the Indus people believed in reincarnation, the re-emergence of human life in different forms and states, the Egyptians’ main aim was to make a successful journey to the afterlife, once someone passed on, in order to join their immortal gods, especially Osiris, the god of the underworld (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d). Suffice to say, the two civilization believed in immortality and knew death to be a temporary feature – a bridge connecting one’s present life and their
Therefore, by doing this they filled the tombs with food, drink, jewelry, and furniture to make their transition easier. Moreover, they decorated the walls with the Book of the Dead to help the soul reach the stars in the sky or join the sun god (“Egyptian Mythology”). Lastly, ancient Egyptians have also been known to bury their slaves with their masters in order to help serve their masters in the afterlife (”Funeral Rites”). Overall, the Egyptians went to great lengths to respect the body, which greatly contrasted to the mutilation of the corpses by Erictho in
Many people are familiar with the pyramids and tombs of Ancient Egypt, yet not as many know about the different types of art created by the lower classes. Documentaries, movies, and television shows rarely mention the more standard art that was created, that didn’t take years of hard labor to create. This art can be compared to the drawings that many people make today, as a hobby to do in their freetime. The only difference is that the Egyptians made art for more practical purposes, and rarely for fun. You would likely find a lot of these pieces in plebian burial sites, or packed away in museum storage. Though they lack the renown of the pyramids and tombs, the different styles and types of art created by the Ancient Egyptians have just as much value as the larger accomplishments, but for different reasons.
The Egyptian Process of Mummification In ancient Egyptian society, preserving a body after death was an important process necessary for entrance into an immortal existence. According to Egyptian belief, the soul did not die. The soul would take the form of a bird, usually a falcon, and fly around in the world of the living returning later its dead body. The importance of preserving the body revolved around the idea that the roaming soul would be able to recognize the right body and return to it.
The most common ancient Egyptian burial practice is the mummification process as depicted in source B. Mummification is a ritual that embalmers performed when a pharaoh died. Source B is a photograph of the canoptic jars which are a main component of the mummification process. The first step in the mummification process is the removal and preservation of most of the internal organs, such as the lungs, the stomach, the liver and intestines. These organs are then separately embalmed and placed into canoptic jars as source B reveals. These jars were often decorated with one of the four animal-headed sons of the god Horus. Each head is believed to be the protector of each organ within the jar and is dedicated to a specific deity. The preservation of the organs is significant as they allowed the dead person to breathe and eat in the afterlife. The internal organs were then wrapped and put into either the body or put in boxes instead of sitting in jars. Canoptic jars were still placed in the tomb but they were solid or empty and provided a symbolic purpose. In Tutankhamun’s tomb the canoptic jars were discovered in a shrine that was found in the treasury room of the tomb. Source B is useful is when understanding the mummification process.
Cats were often taken to the city of Busbastis to be buried in Bastet’s sacred temple. However, mummified cats have also been found in the cities of Giza, Abydos, Denderah and Beni Hasan. Moreover, it was proper for a family to shave their eyebrows, as a sign of mourning, when their house cat passed away (Hill). When the eyebrows grew back, the mourning period was considered formally over (Mark). Much like humans, the deceased feline would then go through the process of mummification. The body was embalmed and “treated with cedar oil and such spices as to have the quality of imparting a pleasant odour and of preserving the body for a long time” (Hill). Finally, the body was wrapped in fine linen and placed in the burial chamber with provisions including milk, mice, and rats. The Egyptians believed that after death your soul continued to thrive. So, it was important to place the essential necessities within the tomb to be used later in the afterlife, and for cats, this included the above mentioned milk, mice and rats needed for subsistence
On the other hand, the lower class who couldn’t afford to pay the price, just washed their dead loved one’s body with water, and buried them on the sand with some of their possessions. “Beautiful House” (Crosher 38) was the name of the place, where the process of mummification was done. It was a tent situated near a temple. The workshop had all the tools that were needed for the procedure. It usually, took 70 days to mummify the corpse. It was a long, tricky, and unpleasant procedure. The embalmers, who were usually priests, had to be careful and precise. If the corpse was embalmed correctly, the body may last a very long
In Egypt, the Egyptians had a set of burial customs that they believed it is a new life after death. Egyptians believed that the afterlife was very similar to the real life. Therefore, they believed that people would need the same things in real life such as food, drink, clothes, jewelry, and other things. Also, Egyptians believed that people have the soul. Most of poor Egyptians were probably buried in the desert. The poor people would not have much things to bury with them, so they just wrap the body and their clothes . For the wealthy ancient Egyptians, the people were often buried in tombs that called mastabas. The mastabas was the earliest and simplest tomb structure. It was built of mud-brick, and it has the chamber under the tomb. It contained the person's mummified body which is take the body to washed with natron for drying , and it contained food, jewelery and special objects. These tombs were never built for public viewing. Later then, the Egyptians built pyramids to contain the tombs.