To the ancient Egyptians, death was not the end of life but only the beginning of the next
phase in an individual's eternal journey. Their outlook towards death was of denial, narcissism,
and true optimism. Ironically, they spent three thousand years not believing that death was the
end of life only to devote all of their lives preparing for their death. The Egyptians built
mighty pyramids, wrote a long scroll called the Book of the Dead, and wrapped their
dead in bandages to preserve their body so their souls won’t be lost in the afterlife.
But there is much more to this story of the first most elaborate funeral industry of the world.
Welcome to Nutty History, today let’s find out what death was like in Ancient Egypt.
Egyptian civilization lasted for at least three thousand years,
setting the foundation of what a society, culture, and civilization should represent.
Although much has been accomplished by Egyptians, they all pursued one thing, eternal life. In fact,
Egyptologists claim that the modern Egyptian Arabic word for death, al mawt, is the same as
what ancient Egyptians had and was also used for "mother". Clearly, this links the death experience
with birth or, more precisely, re-birth on an eternal plane. Interestingly, there was no word
in ancient Egyptian language that would translate to the “end of life” or the “ceasing to live”. The
ancient Egyptian religion was heavily based around the idea of extending life beyond death, striving
for immortality. They desiccated their bodies for use in the afterlife and built pyramids which they
thought would work like resurrecting machines to ensure that the pharaoh would get a sweet
spot in the sky to live an eternal life as a star. They believed that once the soul of a dead person
had successfully passed the judgment of Osiris for their actions during their time on earth,
they would be sent to the eternal paradise called the Fields of Reeds. This journey was pretty much
like going through baggage reclaim after an aerial journey. When these souls entered the
Field of Reeds, everything that was lost at death was returned to them and they would experience
a happily ever after ending. Such an idea of a blissful afterlife is prevalent in many modern
religions as well along with the fear of being punished eternally for their sins after death.
Ancient Egypt was no different when it comes to the idea of eternal damnation. Even in the periods
of the strong central government when the king and the priests held absolute power and their view of
the paradise-after-death was widely accepted, people were still afraid to die. Archeologists
have discovered a lot of literature that was written during the Middle Kingdom and centered
around the idea of accepting death as the finality and ultimate truth of their time on earth. These
stories are crafted to encourage readers to be grateful to the gods and use their time on earth
to prepare for the afterlife. But the Egyptians loved life, celebrated it throughout the year,
and were in no hurry to leave it even for the kind of paradise their religion promised. And that is
why the popular opinion of Ancient Egypt being ‘obsessed with death’ is definitely undeserved.
Contrarily, Ancient Egyptian culture was fixated on living life to its fullest. While living their
life, they were expected to make most of their time and enjoy their stay on earth to the maximum.
Even in moments of despair and resentment, Egyptians were encouraged to love life and
embrace it. For their approach towards life would shape up their happy ending in paradise. Even the
mortuary rituals were not focused on glorifying or signifying death but to celebrate the continuation
of life in the afterlife. The dead were buried with their possessions in magnificent tombs and
with elaborate rituals because the soul would live forever once it has passed through death's doors.
‘Body is brief, the spirit is eternal’, that was the mantra of the ancient Egyptian religion but it
came with an asterisk sign attached to it. Despite them preparing for the journey to paradise,
the spirit’s existence in the afterlife was not guaranteed. As we mentioned earlier,
the fate of the spirit in the afterlife was dependent on a hearing in the court of Osiris.
The dead had to negotiate a dangerous underworld journey and face the final judgment before they
were granted a ticket to paradise. But eternal happiness didn’t come with all amenities,
they had to provide sustenance for their spirit by themselves. Luckily, that was achievable if
proper preparations were done during their lifetime. Such a requirement facilitated
the flourishing of the Funeral industry in ancient Egypt. Today, the funeral industry
is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the US and things were not so different back in Ancient Egypt
given how much they were worried about a safe and comfortable journey to eternal life. There
were specialist shops and temples which would provide essential funerary items for placement
in the tomb at obviously expensive prices. The funerary items came in two broad categories,
first category was of the items meant for protection and guidance during the journey
through the underworld. Items like amulets, stelae, the Book of the Dead, and other scrolls
that contained funerary texts would fall under this category. Items such as food, clothing,
and small funerary statuettes called shabtis were considered provisions for eternal nourishment,
leisure, and comfort. Ancient Egyptians believed that the dead were granted a plot of land in the
afterlife and were expected to maintain it, either by performing the labor themselves
or getting their shabtis to work for them. If you are wondering how tiny little statuettes
could keep the land in order, well, the funerary people took care of that while manufacturing them.
They inscribed these statuettes with a spell during the production process that
would miraculously bring them to life in the afterlife of their possessor.
Therefore, enabling the dead person to relax while the shabtis performed their physical duties.
The tradition of sending Shabtis with the dead to their afterlife began during the middle
kingdom around 2100 BC. They replaced the servant statuettes that were common for the same purpose
in the old kingdom. Individually sculpted, they were designed to represent the owner
and only one or two were placed in a tomb. But as with everything the wealthy made shabtis a
thing to show off their riches as well. By about 1000 BC, it was common among the upper class of
ancient Egypt to have one shabtis for every single day of the year and also an overseer
shabtis to supervise the rest of them. The last time shabtis were used was in the late Ptolemaic
Period; replacing native Pharaohs changed the attitude towards death and the afterlife.
Symbolic jewelry has always been and still is a big part of the culture,
faith, and religion. Amulets, rings, and bracelets with religious symbols are considered
warding boons in modern religions but Ancient Egyptians believed such charms were endowed
with magical powers of protection, healing, and brought good fortune. From an early age,
they would wear a variety of these charms around the neck, wrists, fingers, and ankles. Most were
symbols related to a god or goddess placing the wearer under their specific protection.
Amulets would be placed on various parts of the body during the wrapping process of mummification.
Ancient Egyptians had a fine collection of more than hundreds of amulets. Funeral supervisors
and families of the deceased would carefully select the amulets for the afterlife. Sometimes,
people would make the selection for themselves before dying. Of course, their wealth would also
play a factor in this choice. The most popular of all amulets were the Heart Scarabs. Usually placed
over the heart of the deceased to protect it from being separated from the body in the underworld,
this amulet was pretty much essential. The reason behind that was the ceremony of the
Weighing of the Heart. Ancient Egyptians believed that the heart of a person contained records of
all the things they did during their life. So, it was evaluated in the afterlife by Anubis by
weighing it against the feather of the goddess Ma’at with Osiris supervising it. If the scales
were balanced, the person passed and entered the afterlife. If not, a chimera-like demoness, Ammit
would devour it, damning the spirit for eternity. The heart scarab was also supposed to provide
comfort and confidence to those who were anxious about this judgment. The amulet’s inscribed spell
would help them to calm their heart and reciting it would prevent the heart from betraying them.
Just like in the present times in the USA, coffins were probably the single most important piece of
the funerary arrangement. Ancient Egyptians called them ‘chests of life’ and they didn’t find it
ironic at all. They firmly believed that their design of the coffin was foolproof to protect
the physical body in this world and the spiritual body in the other world. Their coffin lids were
covered with religious texts, spells, prayers, imagery of gods and goddesses related to death,
and religious symbols. Even though the symbols and gods changed on coffins over time,
the process pretty much stayed the same and so did the purpose. Like today, Coffins were expensive
back in ancient Egypt as well. Coffins were mostly crafted by carpenters, or in the case of royals,
stonemasons. Scribes and painters would then decorate it. In earlier periods, only the very
wealthy could afford to commission a coffin from a workshop. However, in later periods they became
more affordable as ‘mass production’ became common. Cheaper coffins could be bought from
the marketplace and were designed with spaces for personal touches such as a name or title. However,
the earliest findings of archeologists have discovered that before coffins and mummies,
individuals were buried within a burial pot. This practice was common during the predynastic period,
but with the rise of pharaohs, it became less and less common, mostly used for infants and
poorest in its ending days. Though some experts argue that pot burial remained common even during
the Coptic period. Some rural communities in Egypt still use pot burials in modern times.
A theory suggests that the pot represented the womb of the sky goddess,
through whose body the soul of the deceased would have to travel to reach the afterlife.
But there is not enough evidence to support the plausibility of this theory.
Now comes the part that you all must be most interested in and would be most familiar with,
the mummification. Mummification aimed to preserve the body, to house the ba and ka,
two aspects of the Egyptian soul. The earliest attempts at mummification that we know of are
from the Naqada II period when the formation of states began to occur. Obviously, this method
of mummification was quite different from the New Kingdom mummification which most of us are
familiar with. It began almost a millennia and a half after the early version of mummification.
The New Kingdom form of mummification involved removing the internal organs and preserving them
in canopic jars. The brain was liquefied using a rod and then removed via the nose. The body
was dried using a special type of salt called natron for 40 days and then was bandaged for
30 more. While bandaging they would apply oils and resins, place amulets on various parts of the body
and prayers would be chanted for spirit’s protection during the underworld journey.
There were variations on this procedure, and different styles of mummification depending on
how much the family of the deceased was able to spend. The wealthy will obviously choose how to
mummify themselves just like how people now choose which new device to buy. The poor got the short
end of the stick as always and had to go through a lot of bootleg methods to preserve the body.
Tombs were the final home of the dead in ancient Egypt, and many years could be spent on building
and preparing them. The Egyptians called them ‘houses of eternity,’ and built them
on the western bank of the Nile, what they referred to as the land of the dead and while
they build their residential houses with not so long-lasting material like mud bricks and straw,
they’d build their tombs with stone so they could last forever resonating with the idea
‘body is brief but the spirit is eternal.’ And good thing they made them withstand the sands of
time, else we would have probably never learned so much about their fascinating culture and religion.
So, what do you think? Would you prefer to be mummified? Tell us in the comments below. Also,
do tell us if you want us to explore what death was like in other cultures and civilizations?
And as always thanks for watching Nutty History.