One topic that really interested me within the context of Ancient Egypt is death. Death was an intricate part of the Egyptians dynasties. We know this by looking at what they believed the afterlife to be, how they prepared Pharaohs and others after they were deceased, the mummification process, and etc. Also, we could look at tombs, monuments that were erected in the name of the deceased, hieroglyphs, and more. Seeing how they took care of their deceased, shows how important their belief of the after life was.
In class we learned that Anpu also known by his Greek name Anubis, was the God of the afterlife. Like other Gods, he assumed other roles in context. In many hieroglyphs, it shows Anpu weighing the heart against a feather. In this process, it is believed that in order to enter the after life, your heart had to be light as a feather. So Anpu would weigh whomever’s heart on the scale with a feather and see if the scale tipped or was it balanced. This took place in the hall of Ma’at. This really interests me, which is why in my research paper I would like to explore the many aspects of death in the Ancient Egyptian civilizations.
For my research paper, my primary intellectual focus is going to be on burial and the dead in the Egyptian societies. This could also include the mummification process. What did this process look like? Who had the honor of being mummified? Who was in charge of the process? Which good was looked towards for the process? These are all questions that I can and will explore in the research paper. I believe certain documents such as papyrus and scholars who have decoded hieroglyphs could aid in the gaining of more knowledge on the process of death and burial.
One source that I plan to use is “Burial and the Dead in Ancient Egyptian Society: Respect, Formalism, Neglect” from the Journal of Social Archaeology. The document explores how “Ancient Egypt offered a paradigm contrast between ideals of respectful care for the dead, on the one hand, and realities of medium- and long-term neglect, destruction and reuse on the other.”(Baines, Lacovara 2002) The document will be helpful in aiding the exploration of the beliefs of death during this time period. It shows how death was just as important as life in their society.
The second source that I plan to use is “Death is Not the End: Ancient Egyptian Religion and Art”. This scholarly article explores the art of Egyptian religion, which death was a part of. This will be helpful because it explores the religion of the Egyptians and the what and why they thought was important within the context of their religion such as the mummification process and etc. It also discusses the the need of worshipping different Gods in the society, which ties into Gods such Anpu.
My third source is going to be “Papyrus of Ani Egyptian Book of the Dead”. This papyrus touches on everything concerning death and the afterlife of Ancient Egypt. This papyrus will be useful for tying everything together in research paper.
My proposal is not yet sound. I still have to decide on a few things that I want to discuss and explore within the research paper but this is the gist of it. I believe looking at burial and death will also cause me to look at religion. Since they all tie into one another. So, I still have a few things to figure out.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249631679_Burial_and_the_Dead_in_Ancient_Egyptian_Society
Click to access 2010_De%20Lancie.pdf
Click to access Egyptian-Book-of-the-Dead.pdf
Tyreeze, I feel like a lot of people are discussing the topic of death in Ancient Egypt which I think says a lot about what fascinated us about that culture when we were younger! I am also writing about this topic but I am looking at mummification, mortuary goods and art, and how they all relate to the broader concept of the afterlife. I think the questions that you asked about the mummification process above could be answered by this short, yet informing excerpt from the Smithsonian https://www.si.edu/spotlight/ancient-egypt/mummies
There are also many sources that I have found to be helpful on the overall, broader context of the afterlife. “Hieroglyphs and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt” by Werner Forman and Stephen Quirke focus on three mortuary texts, including the Book of the Dead, that may be helpful when it comes to the religious aspect of your topic. “Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt” by John H. Taylor and “Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt” by Salima Ikram may also be helpful in terms of ritual, burial, and mummification. Certain ceremonies, grave goods, mortuary occupations, mortuary locations, etc. could also be good topics to cover to give a broader understanding of the importance of mortuary practices in Ancient Egypt. I see you have a source that I also cited as well: “Burial and the Dead in Ancient Egyptian Society” by John Baines and Peter Lacovara which I think will be helpful to you as well. Some of the sources I shared with you are online but most can be found at the MSU library. Hopefully they have multiple copies!
Good luck to you on your paper, I’m sure it will turn out great!
Tyreeze, you laid out some really interesting content to dive into for your paper. It seems like you want to focus on two aspects relating to death: the ideology (the ‘why’ of mummification) and the bureaucracy (the ‘who’ of mummification). I wonder, though, across which time period(s) would you be examining these practices? I’m sure they evolved over the duration of the Ancient Egyptian state, so it would probably be good to either narrow it down or commit to the idea of seeing how it changed.
With regard to ideology, I feel like there’s a lot to unpack. The clear direction to go would be towards a religious view of the afterlife, which seems like what you’re leaning towards. Discussing the importance and significance of different legends involving the afterlife would be really cool. With the weighing of the heart, maybe you could look into what Egyptian values determined a person’s ‘justness’ at different points in their history (strength, honesty, compassion?).
I think that you touched on some interesting ideas connecting to the bureaucracy of death rituals in Ancient Egypt. Criteria for mummification/tomb building and what that said about a person’s worth to society is probably pretty complex in terms of how many factors go into that qualification. I want to qualify all of it though with asking what was death like for normal people? When they were buried did they have the same opportunities in the afterlife as kings did even though they weren’t allowed all the preparations? It’s important to consider that the fantasized picture of mummification and monuments was the exception as opposed to the rule. The over-representation of the rich in the archaeological record will likely pose some challenges. But as long as you go out of your way to keep the full socioeconomic spectrum in mind, I think you’ll be great!
It seems like there are a lot of people that are talking about some topic that relates to death, including myself. With Egypt though it is really very hard not to talk about some kind of topic that relates to death in one way or another. For example, my topic is on the importance of animals in Egyptian culture. Even though the topic is about animals, it still has very strong ties to death in Egyptian culture and their mortuary practices.
Your sources seem well picked. I really like how you picked one that talked about both respectful care for the dead and how the dead were neglected for differing lengths of time. You mentioned a few topics surrounding death that you would like to talk about which is good but it seems like you need to narrow your focus a little bit more.
I do like the questions that you posed. You should talk about the different types of burials and grave goods that people from different classes could afford or that they would receive. I think it would be interesting to see the different ways that the class distinctions in Egyptian society played into their mortuary practices and how the people were buried and treated after death. What would happen if when someone died that was part of an extremely poor family? How were they treated in death? My guess is not very good but I do not know for sure so I hope that you talk about it in your research.