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Essay on Egyptian mummification
Essay on Egyptian mummification
What is mummification in ancient egypt
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Mummification
According to the ancient Pharaohs believes the mummification was done because the mummified body is the key for the dead man to get to the afterlife and any mistake that leads to the wreckage of the body, the dead person will lose his chance to get to the afterlife. (The British Museum, 2007) If the body of a person was wrecked, he would lose his chance to get the afterlife. For such a reason, so much effort was put in the mummification process to make sure that the body is well protected, especially for the rich pharaohs that have paid a big amount of money for the mummification process. (Burial of the Mummy, 2009) The pharaohs paid so much attention for the mummification process. For example, Khufu, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, spent nearly twenty years building a pyramid as his tomb to protect his mummified body and to assure that he will arrive to the afterlife peacefully. (Smithsonian, 2012) When a king in ancient Egypt die, a great amount of effort was put in is funeral and mummification process, whereas when poor or middle class people died, nobody cared about their death except his family and he had an ordinary funeral. (KingTutOne.com, 2009)
According to the ancient Egyptians believes there were six aspects of life. The first is the physical body which is the body of the person. The second is the shadow there is no shadow if there is no physical body. The third is the name which in ancient Egypt was put as soon as the baby is born. The fourth is the KA which is the spirit or the soul. The fifth is the BA which is the personality. Finally the sixth is the AKH which is the immorality. In ancient Egypt, one can have all of them as soon as he is born except the AKH which can be obtained after death, if and only ...
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... woman means that she will hit her head in the ground, grab her hair, cry very loudly and sometimes a woman cut her clothes off. (Tomorad, 2009) Others who were less fortunate were not able to make such wasteful ceremonies. Instead, most middle class and poor citizens of Egypt had ordinary funerals. Furthermore, most of their money went to the mummification process.
The mummification process was very important in ancient Egypt. The rich pharaohs cared a lot about their mummification process, their funeral and their tombs. They did all what they could do to get the fanciest funeral and tomb. Some of their tombs were built out of mud brick or sometimes even stone. However, the poor citizens in ancient Egypt didn’t have as fancy funerals as the pharaohs had. They concentrated on their mummification process and that’s where most of their money went after their death.
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.
...Persian mūm meaning ‘wax’. In ancient Egypt, at the earliest stage, the people buried the dead in pits in the desert. The dryness and heat from the desert dehydrated the body, creating a lifelike natural ‘mummy’. The ancient Egyptians believed that part of the human spirit was permanently linked to the viability of the body.
In both Egypt and Mesopotamia, they both have ideas about the afterlife. The two have some similarities and differences about the afterlife in which whether they come back as another person, or they come back as another soul, or they go to another world. In Egypt and Mesopotamia there are different meanings of the afterlife through the similarities, difference, and the different civilizations.
Life after death is a mystery, some beliefs include heaven and rebirth, but no one really knows what the afterlife consists of. In Ancient Egypt, people believed that they needed to decorate the coffins with paint, images, or hieroglyphics and put objects such as paintings and jewelry inside or around the tomb for those who died. They believed that it would appease the gods and would allow their passage to the afterlife to be easier and regarded the objects and mummy as a place that the spirit of the diseased could inhibit after death. Egyptians had a strong spiritual belief that was equally important throughout the socioeconomic classes, their belief in the ka, which was the spirit that lived on after death, led them to create marvelous works
Mummification is required in the kemetic religion because of the belief in the afterlife. They felt the need to preserve the body by mummifying the dead to keep the body in tact and the spirit safe until the afterlife. Kemites thought that after the person died, their spirit would return to the body come judgment day and the afterlife so the body had to be in great condition so they could use the body again.
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 ...
A common question many civilizations shared and strived to answer was about death and the afterlife. In Ancient Egypt, the lives of many citizens centered around a prosperous future in death. In fact, Ancient Egyptians believed life continued on in death. For this reason, they yearned to live justly as citizens of Egypt. If not, then the gods would deem them unworthy of entering heaven, or paradise. This was Ancient Egypt, a society seemingly obsessed with the afterlife and enriched with funeral practices. Their worship of pharaohs and gods, detailed inscriptions about mummification, and elaborate tombs influenced their constant strive towards achieving everlasting peace in the afterlife.
Throughout the ages in many different cultures people have questioned what we are to expect after death. Some cultures believed being reborn after death, some believed in spirits of loved ones protecting them after death and others believed in a life after death. The Egyptians were a culture that prepared thoroughly for their afterlife most tombs contained treasures or belongings that a person was to ‘bring’ with them to the afterlife. One of the items that was desired to have buried with them was a Book of the Dead or a scroll that contained spells and prayers that was to bring good fortune to a person in their afterlife. One great example of a Book of the dead scroll is the Last Judgement Of Hunefer (Fig 3-37). This scroll was from the tomb of a royal Theban scribe Hunefer , who served under Seti I during the 19th dynasty or between 1300-1290 BCE. The scroll itself was painted on papyrus , the scroll stands about 1’ 6’’ high and is located now in the British Museum of London. With no prior knowledge to egyptian history or hieroglyphics one could guess what the scroll narrates by ...
illogical to some, the reasons for embalming the dead made perfect sense to the Egyptians. Mummification kept corpses in a desiccate, pristine condition; the body must be suitable for the owner’s spirit to return for a rendezvous, as per Egyptian belief (Evans, 20)....
into a bowl. During the old and Middle Kingdoms, the brain was left in the
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.
Although there are few religions that still consider the ways of the ancient Egyptian culture important, they are still out there. They are influenced every day by the history, which permeates their rituals, scriptures, and more. Furthermore, Egypt’s political influence may be outdated and not the clearest system, but it led the way for further development and refinement for future use. Without the influence of Egypt, we would not be the civilization that we are
Death and the journey to the next life were very important to the ancient Egyptian culture and is what perhaps has drawn and still captures the fascination of historians and people alike. Most of Egyptian mythology stems from beliefs of the afterlife and thus explains the importance of mummification. The act of mummification was to ready the body of the deceased for its next journey so that the spirit could once again be reunited with the body.
In the ancient Egyptian religion, mummification was a significant and important step in the burial traditions as they believed that the only way to get to the afterlife was to have a preserved body and many treasures. However, it was not until the 4th and 5th centuries that Egyptians started intentionally mummifying the dead. Before there were dynasties in Egypt, the bodies of the dead were dried out in the sun before being buried in the ground but the practice evolved to the commonly known form of mummification in the New Kingdom with tombs and better-preserved mummies. Some of the best-preserved mummies are dated from around the 18th – 20th dynasties in the New Kingdom, one of these mummies included the boy-pharaoh, King Tutankhamun.