In “Changes in the Afterlife,” John H. Taylor discusses the various aspects of Egyptian burial throughout varied eras of Egyptian rule. Ancient Egyptians believed that the afterlife was a continuation of life, their souls traveling to the underworld to continue where they left off on the mortal plane. Ancient Egyptians were of course not the only civilization that practiced ritualistic mortuary practices but they stood out for their large investments in extravagant mortuary monuments. Often within these monuments laid to the rest were the elite and royal individuals of ancient Egypt. Within their tombs were burial goods such as gold and vessels and their tombs were lined with important written word that distinguished the royals from others. The less wealthy were still able to have a ritualistic burial but of course with less expenditure, their mummification often reduced down to reused bandages and oils and waters dressed over the body before being encased behind a wooden tomb. Classically, Egyptologists only focused on elite burials, their flashy monuments and extravagant goods catching the eye of collectors and archaeologists alike.

During the New Kingdom pharaohs were buried in separate tombs in the Valley of the Kings. This elite burial site featured the Books of the Netherworld carved and painted on the tomb walls, shrines, and inside on the sarcophagi. Taylor states the Books of the Netherworld were “detailed and magically enacted the dead king’s participation in the sun god’s cyclical journey of rejuvenation,” an incredibly important part of ancient Egypts burial practices and overall religion. In the Third Intermediate Period mortuary practices changed from elaborate to more subdued burials. Inside the settlement at Tanis, tombs were formed in groups in underground chambers while cult superstructures were built above the burial chambers, unlike in the New Kingdom when cult temples were separate structures from the burial sites. In the Third Intermediate Period there was a decline in grave goods seen in tombs, reused goods found were believe to be a sign of shortage of material resources but also a “weakening of the ideological basis of the royal burial.”

Today our burial practices are much different from that of ancient Egypt. Obviously our burials are not as extravagant as ancient Egypt and we do not mummy our dead. The point of mummification in ancient Egypt was to evolve the human form as it was ”the physical base and the focal point for all aspects of existence, it had to be transformed in a new kind of body in order to continue its role.” Today when someone dies we attempt to make them look as similar as they did when they were alive. Our treatment of our dead defines our culture just as it did for ancient Egypt, our cemeteries scattered around cities and towns show an appreciation and respect for the dead, although not as much as ancient Egyptians.