Egyptian Funerary Customs

The elaborate funerary customs of ancient Egyptians have fascinated me for years. It was very interesting to learn some of these customs, such as mummification, over the past couple of lectures. The Egyptians definitely knew how to honor the life and identity of an individual, and how to prepare him/her for paradise in eternity.

The ancient Egyptian people were strong believers in an afterlife, and they wanted to make sure that deceased individuals were able to secure an idealized version of the life they had experienced on Earth after death. In order to allow the spirit of a person to be fully involved in the afterlife, the individual’s identity had to be preserved. The Egyptians did this through two main methods.

The process of mummification was used to preserve the body in order to prepare it to host the soul of the individual (which was believed to continue on, even after death). During this process, all of the internal organs, except the heart, were removed from the body. Egyptians did not want the organs to cause the body to decompose (since they held a lot of fluid), but they believed that they were essential for an individual to have in the afterlife. Excluding the brain, which was believed to have no exceptional value, the organs were embalmed and placed in hollow canopic jars. Natron was placed in and around the body, absorbing the fluids it contained and drying it out. A body was made more life-like by being stuffed with sawdust or linen. The final steps in the process involved wrapping the body with hundreds of yards of linen. Amulets, good luck charms, and jewelry were wrapped with the shrouds to protect the dead. Typically, a scarab beetle amulet was placed over the heart of the body. Special priests were the people to perform the mummification process, and they also performed spells and prayers afterwards. Overall, the entire mummification process took about seventy days. During the Old Kingdom dynasty, only the royals were allowed to be mummified. However, during the New Kingdom dynasty, the process was available to everybody.

The body could not just be preserved; it had to be protected as well. The Egyptians completed this task by placing mummies in tombs. In the public’s eye today, the most famous Egyptian tombs are the three pyramids at Giza. In areas with steep cliffs, such as in the Valley of the Kings, tombs were cut deep into the rock. Egyptians that were not royal would usually use rock-cut tombs. What was placed in the tomb during a burial were objects deemed necessary for the afterlife. This included furniture, paintings, statues food, dishes, jewelry, clothes, and other everyday items. Even pets and, occasionally, servants were mummified and placed with an individual in a tomb to accompany him/her in the afterlife.

I think that it’s very interesting that the Egyptians performed such intricate funerary customs because of their love of life. They were very aware that their time on Earth was limited. As a result, the Egyptians focused extensively on preparing for the best afterlife they could have. Tombs such as the great pyramids of Giza, which took years to complete, are superb evidence for this. It is quite fascinating that even after thousands of years, many of the great pharaohs are being remembered today, which was something that they had always wanted after death.

One thought on “Egyptian Funerary Customs

  1. Hi, Emily! First off, I really enjoyed your post! Similar to you, I have always been intrigued by the funerary customs of the ancient Egyptians. I’ve really enjoyed that we’ve been talking about mummification in lecture lately, and I’m so glad that you chose to write your blog report on the topic! I wrote about the process of mummification (you should definitely check it out and let me know what you think!), and I totally agree with you- the Egyptians certainly honored the life and identity of an individual. Like you, I described the main two components of mummification, the embalming and the wrapping/burial, but there is some additional information that I found that I think you might enjoy (just some more specifics on what you touched on). There are three people involved in the mummification process: the scribe, the embalmer, and the cutter. The scribe’s role was to oversee the cutter, who was in charge of making the incisions into the body. As this procedure was considered to be ‘unclean’, the cutter had limited position/rank in society (i.e., lower class or status). The scribe observes the cutter’s work to ensure that the body is properly prepared for the embalmer. The embalmer was a person of the priest class and was held accountable for removing the internal organs and preparing the body.

    As you mentioned, it took roughly 70 days to prepare an ancient Egyptian mummy. How crazy to think that they were willing to spend that much time working to preserve a corpse?! I love how passionate the Egyptian culture is for preserving one’s identity and carrying it safely over to the afterlife.

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