Role Of Mummification In Ancient Egypt

The Egyptian believed that before the mortal one is ready to take the journey, he or she would designate a person to manage their death. This designated person would take on the responsibilities of preparing the body and tomb for burial. The person getting ready to take the journey would read from "The Book of The Dead" and there he or she would retrieve their secret name. Not allowed to be talked about was the secret name, until a certain time in the journey and would enable the dead to overcome obstacles and follow the right path of the underworld. It also granted protection and help of the gods. After the secret name is given, then he or she would then prepare their tomb. The tomb is an important process, usually the deceased were mummified and buried in a minimum of two boxes,

The process begins where the body is taken into an “ibu”, a tent also known as the “place of purification”. That is where the embalmers wash the body in palm wine and rinse it off with water from the Nile. The next step is when one of the men makes a small cut in the left side of the body and removes the liver, lungs, stomach and also intestines. It is important to remove these internal organs because they are one of the fastest to decompose. These internal organs are then washed and packed in natron, a mineral salt that contains hydrated sodium carbonate. The natron will dry out the organs. The heart is not taken out because Egyptians believed that the heart was the center of intelligence and feeling and the body will need it in the afterlife.

Egyptians would bury their dead with treasures like gold and other things that they believed that they could use in the afterlife. Egyptians also mummified the people so that they could preserve their bodies. Nowadays people just have a funeral or cremate the

The Egyptians also worried very much about the after life and made many preparations before the afterlife. There graves were very important to them, and they also did much to keep them from decaying after they passed. That is why they had the idea of mummification to allow them to not decay long after they passed. We also pay a lot of money to allow us to keep from decaying on our burials and the coffins.

Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece both believed in life after death, though the process in which they follow that belief differ greatly. The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the spirit leaves the body in the form of a little gust of wind or a puff of breath. The Greeks believed in proper burial rights that were performed in three parts, and the relatives mostly women are the ones that conduct these rituals for the deceased. Much like the modern world these rituals consist of the first step; laying out the body to be dressed, the second funeral procession, and the third step was the cremation of the body. Unlike the Greeks the Egyptians developed a process in which they prepared and preserved the dead for the afterlife, known as mummification. This process is believed to have been the purpose of the Egyptians famous pyramids, believed to be the stairs that would lead the Pharaohs to their kingdom in the afterlife. Artifacts are buried in their tombs such as gold, wine, and sculptures to accompany the dead in life after death.

The Egyptians believed that the human soul used the first night after death to travel into the afterlife. The body, which the

The tombs had two main functions. The first function was a place that provided an eternal resting place in which the body could lay protected from thieves and scavengers. The second function of the tomb was a place where cults and ritual acts could be performed to ensure eternal life (Taylor, 2001:136). The body of the person was buried along with their belongings in the tomb to ensure the individual had all the proper materials needed for the afterlife. The Egyptians usually did this because “Tombs were constructed to mirror aspects of the afterlife” (Olson, 2009). These tombs were not only a place where bodies of a deceased lay; it was also a place where rituals would take place. One ritual that was done on the bodies was the ‘Opening of the Mouth’. This was a burial ritual that “accompanied the placement of funerary goods in a tomb- and was a necessary step in the deceased’s rebirth” (Olson, 2009). One very important service that had to be done was the mummification process in which the removal of organs

Funerary customs are practises and beliefs that the Ancient Egyptians used to respect their dead, and preserve their bodies in preparation for the afterlife which was a universe that mirrored their life on Earth, where they would live with the Gods in eternal Egypt. The body of the deceased could be mummified, which was where a body is dried, packed with minerals and wrapped in linen cloths, whereas another form would be embalming which is the use of salts and spices to preserve a body and took 70 days in total. However, there were many tests and dangers on the way to the afterlife, including fire-filled lakes, poisonous snakes and executioners. Because of this, there were many ceremonies and tests to see if the deceased person was worthy of the Afterlife. Such as the opening of the mouth ceremony which was when a priest touched parts of the deceased body at a funeral in order for the

The mummification process is done in two phases, the first being embalming and the latter being wrapping and burial. There was a special place for embalming to take place known as the ibu. The ibu was called the place of purification. The first thing the embalmers do is to clean his body with aromatic palm wine and rinse it with Nile water. The next step involves removing all but a select few of the internal organs. The process used to remove the internal organs changed over time and varied with the wealth of the body in question. The heart was left in the body because of its necessity as the focal point of mental and emotional stability. The body’s fluids and rags used in this phase are left with the body for its burial. The body is left for a period of

Masks of deceased persons are part of traditions in many countries. The most important process of the funeral ceremony in ancient Egypt was the mummification of the body, which, after prayers and consecration, was put into a sarcophagus enameled and decorated with gold and gems. A special element of the rite was a sculpted mask, put on the face of the deceased. This mask was believed to strengthen the spirit of the mummy and guard the soul from evil spirits on its way to the afterworld.

Mysteries of ancient Egypt attracted the attention of archeologists and ordinary people for many centuries. An enormous impact on the history of Egypt was religion, it shaped the everyday life of all the egyptians. They wanted an afterlife in Aaru, heaven. It was the ultimate goal. People 's lives were rotating around religion, and everything that was tangent to it.

In this tradition, people would be mummified after death. Once this threshold had been crossed, a person's spirit or ba could be manifested in many places at once. After judgment, which could be cheated with magic, a person's ba could travel with Ra or rest with Osiris in the underworld (Egyptian 119). There were many different dangers to the dead and having a complete body with which to return to for rest was very important for the Egyptians. Human remains were not the objects of reverence and worship as Christian saints are these days.

These beliefs made the burial rituals of the Ancient Egyptians quite serious and meaningful. These first burial rituals date back to the Pre-Dynastic Period.

form of a bird usually a falcon and fly around in the world of the living

When a loved one died the Ancient Egyptians had a lot of preparations they had to go through to get the dead person to the afterlife.