As a History Education major, I am always excited to discuss ancient Mediterranean culture. Whenever the discussion is on Ancient Egypt, there is this sense of exotic mysticism that defines the culture. Ancient Egypt was one of the first great civilizations to rise while many other cultures were still in the Stone Age of human development. Surrounded by desert, the Egyptians didn’t just eek out an existence, they thrived and dominated their surroundings. Some may even argue that they were the world’s first superpower. Truly the Ancient Egyptian civilization was one of the great civilizations of the world.
The reason why I brought up this sense of exotic mysticism is because whenever anyone mentions Ancient Egypt, the first thing that pops into my mind are mummies, tombs, pyramids, and mausoleums. For other ancient civilizations, like Ancient Rome or Greece, one may think of the Flavian Amphitheater, or the Acropolis, or Roman aqueducts, or Greek theaters. Not much is mentioned of Roman or Greek tombs in popular culture compared to Ancient Egypt. At the same time, not much is mentioned about Egyptian centers of entertainment compared to Ancient Greece or Rome. The mysticism revolves around this phenomena. Ancient Egypt appears to be a culture obsessed with death and religion. The Great Pyramids, the discovery of King Tut, the Valley of the Kings are all connected under the theme of death.
Why is death focused on when Ancient Egypt is being talked about? Egypt is one of the few cultures in the Mediterranean that practiced mummification, which makes it unique and is therefore highlighted. It may also be a residual effect of the Egyptomania that started after the discovery of King Tut. Such a lucrative discovery coupled with an exciting narrative encouraged others to try to match Carter’s discovery. If Carter had found a treasury filled with gold or a harbor filled with boats, the precedent may have been different. Also the fact that there is great wealth to be found in tombs may be why the public’s inquisitive focus is centered on a great monetary discoveries over cultural discoveries. It could also be that what has stood the test of time has been these mausolems, tombs, and temples. They must be somewhat important if the Egyptians made it an effort to make these sites as strong as possible.
So in some sense this obsession with death is two-fold. On one hand is the notion that a great discovery means the discovery of precious objects, on the other is that Ancient Egypt may really have valued religious culture and the idea of death. If more discoveries of a secular nature are made in Egypt, it may shift the publics focus away from Egypt’s common theme or it may completely change the archaeologists understanding of Egypt as a culture.
I definitely agree with you that the Ancient Egyptian culture is fascinating and that there is still a powerful allure to study the culture. It is truly amazing that this appeal, which was present hundreds of years ago, continues to strongly thrive today. Ancient Egypt definitely had an impact on my life. When I was in elementary or middle school, I bought a book called “Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris”. This fictional book followed an archaeologist through Egypt as she and her crew tried searching for the tomb of the god Osiris. The book definitely captivated me with its beautiful illustrations, its guide on how to read simple hieroglyphs, and the “mummy cloth” it contained. Part of me wanted to become an archaeologist and travel to Egypt so I could be like the woman in the book. I honestly think that the mysteries surrounding the Egyptian culture has fascinated most people at least at once in their life.
I think that when talking about the Ancient Egyptians’ obsession with death, we can consider it sort of an obsession with life. The Egyptians believed that when an individual died, they continued living in the afterlife. The reason why the Ancient Egyptians took extra care to preserve the body of the deceased and surrounded him/her with everyday objects was because they wanted that person to have the necessary items for their eternal life. They also wanted to make sure that the deceased individual’s identity would be preserved forever. Some pharaohs prepared for the afterlife for many years before they actually died!
Something you mentioned in your post was that the Ancient Egyptian civilization thrived while other cultures were still living in the Stone Age. It never really occurred to me how advanced and powerful the Ancient Egyptians were compared to other civilizations during that time period and just how long ago they actually lived! While the death portion of the Ancient Egyptians’ culture is interesting, I would definitely like to learn more about other parts of their culture.
I feel like Emily has a very good point, that we might look at ancient Egypt’s obsession with death as a sort of obsession with life. They did believe that in order for the soul to move on and exist in the afterlife, their bodies needed to be preserved, so a great deal of care was taken around the death of someone to ensure their eternal life was taken care of.
Though some Egyptians (like Ramses II) lived into their nineties, the average life expectancy for an Egyptian was thirty-three years. (That is an especially scary number for me, since I’m only five years away from hitting that age myself.) They had such a short time on this plane, so they needed to ensure that their eternity was well taken in hand. It would not do to let your loved one suffer through eternity because you failed to preserve their body correctly.
I am fascinated with how they came up with the mummification process in the first place. It made sense that they would know that burying a body in the dry sand would desiccate them, but how did they know how to replicate that outside of the ground? How much time did it take to perfect that method? How many bodies were improperly disposed of because of a failure to properly embalm, and did they believe those people’s souls were forever damned, or stuck on this plane, unable to move on? I would love to be able to get into the heads (no pun intended) of those who actually created the mummification process. I would love to know the trial and error it took to perfect their process.