![]() ![]() 2613 BCE) which then became the grand pyramids of the Old Kingdom (c. ![]() 3150 BCE) evolved into the mastaba tombs of the Early Dynastic Period (c. Simple graves in the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 3500 BCE when mummification began to be practiced but no written record of what form this belief took. It is clear there was already a belief in some kind of afterlife prior to c. The earliest burials in ancient Egypt were simple graves in which the deceased was placed, on the left side, accompanied by some grave goods. The mortuary rituals provided the people with just that sort of guarantee. Egyptologist Helen Strudwick notes, “for the life-loving Egyptians, the guarantee of continuing life in the netherworld was immensely important” (190). These rituals encouraged the healthy expression of grief among the living but concluded with a feast celebrating the life of the deceased and his or her departure, emphasizing how death was not the end but only a continuation. In order to make sure they reached their destination safely, the Egyptians developed elaborate mortuary rituals to preserve the body, free the soul, and send it on its way. Although there were outpourings of grief and deep mourning over the loss of someone they loved, they did not believe the dead person had ceased to exist they had merely left the earth for another realm. When someone died in ancient Egypt the funeral was a public event which allowed the living to mourn the passing of a member of the community and enabled the deceased to move on from the earthly plane to the eternal. Actually, though, they were fully engaged in life, so much so that their afterlife was considered an eternal continuation of their time on earth. Mummies in dark, labyrinthine tombs, strange rituals performed by dour priests, and the pyramid tombs of the kings remain the most prominent images of ancient Egypt in many people’s minds even in the present day, and an array of over 2,000 deities – many of them uniquely associated with the afterlife – simply seems to add to the established vision of the ancient Egyptians as obsessed with death. Even into the mid-20th century CE reputable scholars were still writing on the death-obsessed Egyptians whose lives were lacking in play and without joy. When someone died in ancient Egypt the funeral was a public event which allowed the living to mourn and the deceased to move on.Įver since European archaeologists began excavating in Egypt in the 18th and 19th centuries CE, the ancient culture has been largely associated with death. ![]() A detail from the Book of the Dead of Tayesnakht from Thebes, Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 BCE. ![]()
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