Download Mummification

Mummification
and Funerary Rituals of Ancient
Egypt
http://www.culturefocus.com/egypt.htm
Introduction
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Seti I died ~3000 years ago
Advanced culture
Obsessed with death
Developed artificial mummification
How did they do it?
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/
mummification.htm
Why Mummify?
• Requirements for Afterlife
– Preservation = the ability to recognize of the
body
– Sustenance for the ka (vital essence or soul)
– Deceased’s name must be commemorated by
prayer
The Mummification Process
• Evisceration
– Dehydration of organs
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Dehydration of Body
Cosmetics
Oil and scented resins
Wrapping
– Amulets
– Spells
http://www.openschool.bc.ca/courses/ss7/
images/mummy.jpg
Evisceration
• Brain was removed through the nose
• Viscera (internal organs) were dried and stored
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Liver
Lungs
Stomach
Intestines
• Heart was left in place
http://theegyptianpalace.safeshopper.com/
137/262.htm?304
Dehydration of the Body
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Wash out body cavity
Stuff with filling
Covered in natron
Leave for forty days
Cosmetics and Aromatic Oils
• Cosmetics are applied to the body
• Body is treated with aromatic oils
Bandaging
• Body is bandaged with linen
• Amulets are put on body
• Spells are said
Funerary Rituals
• Weighing of the heart
• Opening of the mouth
• Misc.
– Purification
– Annointing
– Incantation
• Offerings
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7171/
funeralprocession.jpg
Weighing of the Heart
• Test to enter the afterlife
• Heart was weighed against
the feather of Ma’at
(concept of truth, balance, order, law,
morality, and justice. Ma’at was also
personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, and the
actions of both mortals and the deities, who set the order of the
universe from chaos at the moment of creation)
• A monster waited to
consume the unworthy
http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/
funerary_practices/judgment.htm
Opening of the Mouth
• Coffin was Purified
• Incantations were Read
• Senses were restored
http://www.egyptianmyths.net/
images/openmouth.jpg
Tombs
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Pyramid/Coffin Text
Burial/Antechamber
False Door
Offering Place
http://www.si.umich.edu/Art_History/UMMA/
1980/1980_1.204.jpg
Tombs
Funerary Goods
• Shabti
• Ka Statues
• Statues of the
gods
• Clothes
• Games
• Furniture
• Cosmetics
• Writing
Material
• Farming
Equipment
• Chariots
• Gold
• Perfume
• Food
http://www.geocities.com/
royalmummies/
Shabtis_PlateXXVI.jpg
Shabti = small figures of adult male or female form
inscribed with a special formula to be recited.
Bibliography
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Fleming, Fergus , and Alan Lothian. The Way to Eternity, Egyptian
Myth and Mankind. London, England: Duncan Baird Publishers,
1997.
Lewis, Jon E. The mammoth Book of Eyewitness Ancient Egypt. New
York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003 Wilkinson, Richard H. .
Sands, Emily. Egyptology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick
Press.
Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art. London, England: Thames and
Hudson Ltd, 1999.
Http://www.egyptologyonline.com/mummification.htm
http://www.egyptologyonline.com/book_of_th_dead.htm http://
www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ema/ema04.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ema/ema08.htm
Http://www.stormpages.com/diluted/Mummy.html