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The Egyptian culture is something that has fascinated the human race for thousands of years. Their cryptic writing and obsession with the afterlife have captivated people across the globe for centuries. The lives of the Egyptians were so centrally focused on their life after death, that it became a motif seen in many of their works and proceedings. The funerary rituals, architecture and art of this ancient civilization provide the modern day world with a looking glass into the history and basis of their culture. The Egyptians considered death not to be the end of life, but instead an interruption-a change of life form, not annihilation.
This is reflected heavily in their belief in the afterlife. The Egyptians believed that the spirit consisted of three individual parts: the ka, the ba and the and. The ka is represented by two upraised arms [Figure 1 ], and is distinguished as the individual's "vital force", or "spiritual twin" (Romano 3). When a person was born, the ka was formed by the gods, but was not allowed to merge with its mortal body until the body was deceased.
At this time, the person was said to have "gone to his ka. " The Egyptians believed that the ka dwelt within the mummy itself. However, as backup, ka statues were crafted and placed in the tomb, so that the ka would have a place to dwell if the mummy were ever destroyed (Romano 4). The Egyptians believed that the afterlife was quite similar to the deceased's life on earth. It is because of that belief that the ka needed forms of sustenance even in the afterlife. Depictions and lists of gifts, such as food, wine and beer drawn on the tomb walls were thought to be enough to sustain the ka, however, family members and other mourners brought actual food and drink to the ka, to keep it healthy (Frankfort 91). The ba was the second part of the spirit.
It was the part that was allowed to leave the tomb during the day, and travel about the earth as it pleased. During the hours of the night, however, the ba was forced to return to the tomb. Most commonly, the ba was represented as a human-headed bird. The ba could only begin its life once the ka and the dead body were united. Without the ka and a human body or ka statue, the ba could not exist (Romano 4). The third, and last, element of the Egyptian spirit was the and, which was never represented like the ka and ba.
A person's and lived in the sky, in the kingdom of the gods. To the Egyptians, the stars that never dropped below the horizon into the underworld were the spirits of the au (plural). Only spirits who were the purest of heart, and who proved themselves worthy, were the ones who were fortunate enough to become an and (Romano 5 - 6). None of these spiritual forms could come into being unless the body of the deceased was embalmed in an effective manner. Proper embalming was important because these spirits relied heavily upon preservation of the body. The embalming process of the Egyptians was very intricate.
At its most developed point, in Dynasty XXI, mummification involved 4 steps: 1) removing all the internal organs, because they were the first to decompose, 2) dehydrating the body with a water absorbing substance called natron, or salt 3) stuffing the body cavity with packing material and re-shaping the departed into their original form, including facial structures, and 4) wrapping the body tightly in linen cloth (Romano 11). This process took about seventy days to complete. First, the body was taken to a special workshop, which was regarded as "the place of purification" (Ions 131). After the body was taken to the workshop, it was washed with Nile water. Next, an incision was made in the corpse's left side, from which the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were removed. These organs were then placed in four canopy jars.
The heart was left in the body because it was regarded as the place of intelligence in the being, and would be judged in the kingdom of Osiris, the underworld. The brain was also removed, through the nasal cavity. Contrary to the other vital organs, the brain was not preserved. Thought of as useless, it was discarded.
After the removal of the organs, the body cavity was then filled with both spices and resins, or from the Middle Kingdom period forward, balls of linen. The body was then wrapped in linen bandages. Throughout the layers of wrapping, amulets were placed on the body. The most important amulet was the scarab, which was placed over the heart. The symbol of renewed life, the scarab was intended to suggest the resurrection into eternal life. All this was performed with one thing in mind: preservation of the body so the soul could live on.
Once the wrapping was complete, the mummy's facial features were painted on the face of the mummy. It was then placed in its coffin, ready to be taken to the deceased's final tomb and resting place on the West bank of the Nile river (Ions 131 - 133). The procession to the tomb was of great ritual. Headed by the coffin lying in a boat, it was pulled along on a sledge by men and oxen.
At either end were two chief women mourners, watching over the body as Isis and Nephthys watched over Osiris' dead body until Horus could avenge his death (Ions 133). Behind them walked the male mourners. Next came the sledge that held the canopy jars, containing the preserved organs. During the New Kingdom, these jars pictorially represented the four sons of Horus, who each watched over one vital organ (Ions 133).
Then came the other women, some professional mourners, crying out their howling dirge (Ions 133). These people believed that every day the sun was "born" in the East, and at night, it "died" as it set in the West. Similarly, the West was regarded as "death", or the "place of the dead" to the Egyptians (Romano 6). Thus, the procession made its way toward the burial grounds, on the West bank of the Nile.
On the way, the mourners traditionally would re-enact the journeys of the deceased Pharaoh. Once at the tomb, dancers and musicians would join the procession in order to glorify the Pharaoh's passage into eternal life. Outside the tomb, the priest would begin the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. The Opening of the Mouth ceremony was a tradition held in ancient Egypt that referenced Horus' resurrection of his father, Osiris, from the dead (Ions 133). Once Horus won the battle against his uncle, Set, who had killed Osiris, he was instructed to perform three tasks, one of them being to "open his mouth. " To do this, "Horus touched his father's lips with an adze which represented the Great Bear and with which, in an ancient myth, Set had opened the mouths of the gods, [giving] them their power of command" (Ions 133). Once Horus completed his tasks, Osiris was resurrected and given the title of "God of the Underworld." It is because of this myth that the Opening of the Mouth ceremony was performed, opening the way for rebirth of the deceased's soul.
The ceremony was performed not only on the mummy itself, but on the ka statue as well, again, as a backup just in case the mummy was destroyed. After this ceremony, the mummy was placed in the tomb, now fully equipped for burial. Seemingly analogous to the ka, ba and and, the Egyptians believed in three types of destinies for the spirit. Stellar destiny was the type when the Pharaoh "goes to his ka" or "goes to the sky. " A nether life was similar to the deceased's life on Earth, after their "justification" by Osiris. The third type, solar destiny, was when the spirit accompanied the sun in its trek across the sky and becomes part of the followers of Re, the sun god, or possibly even merged with him (Badawy 46).
Through the architecture of ancient Egypt, we can see reflections of these three destinies. The tomb of the early dynasties was called the mastaba, after the Arabic word for "bench" (Badawy 47). They were rectangular superstructures, shaped like benches that were seen in front of modern Egyptian houses (Romano 22). Mastaba's were oriented north-south, with a staircase descending to the subterranean burial chamber from the north, "probably symbolizing the northern circumpolar stars to which the deceased was supposed to fly" (Badawy 47).
This is a prime example of the stellar destiny. The spirit was given passage by way of the staircase to "fly to the sky. " During the First Dynasty, however, the staircase was shifted to the east side, "toward the sunrise, an architectural expression of the shift from stellar to solar destiny" (Badawy 47). At first, the mastaba was a simple mud brick rectangle, but over time, architects increased the southern recess, began building more heavily with stone, and the space became a small chapel devoted to the dead, where family members and ka priests would give their offerings to the deceased. In some cases, the layout of the mastaba became great enough...
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Research essay sample on Ancient Egyptian Beliefs In The Afterlife
