Ancient History Encyclopedia

Ancient Egyptian Burial

Joshua J. Markby Joshua J. Mark

published on 19 January 2013

Book of the Dead Detail

Book of the Dead Detail

by Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Egyptian burial is the common term for the ancient Egyptian funerary rituals concerning death and the
soul’s journey to the afterlife. Eternity, according to scholar Margaret Bunson, “was the common
destination of each man, woman and child in Egypt” (87) but not 'eternity' as in an afterlife above the
clouds but, rather, an eternal Egypt which mirrored one’s life on earth. The afterlife for the ancient
Egyptians was The Field of Reeds (Aaru) which was a perfect reflection of the life one had lived on earth.
Everything one thought had been lost at death was waiting in an idealized form in the afterlife and one's
earthly goods, interred with one's corpse, followed suit and were there at hand.

Burial rites were practiced as early as the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 - c. 3150 BCE) and reflect
this vision of eternity. The earliest preserved body from a tomb is that of so-called 'Ginger', discovered in
Gebelein, Egypt, and dated to 3400 BCE, which contained grave goods for the afterlife. Burial rites
changed over time between the Predynastic Period and the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE, the last
Egyptian era before it became a Roman province) but the constant focus was on eternal life and the
certainty of personal existence beyond death. This belief became well-known throughout the ancient
world via cultural transmission through trade (notably by way of the Silk Road) and came to influence
other civilizations and religions. It is thought to have served as an inspiration for the Christian vision of
heaven and a major influence on burial practices in other cultures.

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Mourning & the Soul

According to Herodotus (484-425/413 BCE), the Egyptian rites concerning burial were very dramatic in
mourning the dead, even though it was hoped that the deceased would find bliss in an eternal land
beyond the grave. He writes:
As regards mourning and funerals, when a distinguished man dies, all the women of the household
plaster their heads and faces with mud, then, leaving the body indoors, perambulate the town with the
dead man’s relatives, their dresses fastened with a girdle, and beat their bared breasts. The men too, for
their part, follow the same procedure, wearing a girdle and beating themselves like the women. The
ceremony over, they take the body to be mummified. (Nardo, 110)

Mummification was practiced in Egypt as early as 3500 BCE and is thought to have been suggested by
the preservation of corpses buried in the arid sand. The Egyptian concept of the soul – which may have
developed quite early – dictated that there needed to be a preserved body on the earth in order for the
soul to have hope of eternal life. The soul was thought to consist of nine separate parts:

Khat was the physical body

Ka was one’s double-form

Ba was a human-headed bird aspect which could speed between earth and the heavens

Shuyet was the shadow self

Akh was the immortal, transformed self

Sahu and Sechem were aspects of the Akh

Ab was the heart, the source of good and evil

Ren was one’s secret name

The Khat needed to exist in order for the Ka and Ba to recognize itself and so the body had to be
preserved as intact as possible.

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After a person had died, the family would bring the body of the deceased to the embalmers where the
professionals “produce specimen models in wood, graded in quality. They ask which of the three is
required, and the family of the dead, having agreed upon a price, leave the embalmers to their task”
(Ikram, 53). There were three levels of quality and corresponding price in Egyptian burial and the
professional embalmers would offer all three choices to the bereaved. According to Herodotus: “The
best and most expensive kind is said to represent [Osiris], the next best is somewhat inferior and
cheaper, while the third is cheapest of all” (Nardo, 110).
Egpytian Sarcophagus

by Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Types of Mummification

These three choices in burial dictated the kind of coffin one would be buried in, the funerary rites
available and, also, the treatment of the body. According to the scholar Salima Ikram:

The key ingredient in the mummification was natron, or netjry, divine salt. It is a mixture of sodium
bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, sodium sulphate and sodium chloride that occurs naturally in Egypt,
most commonly in the Wadi Natrun some sixty four kilometres northwest of Cairo. It has desiccating and
defatting properties and was the preferred desiccant, although common salt was also used in more
economical burials. (55)

The body of the deceased, in the most expensive type of burial, was laid out on a table, and the brain
was removed

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via the nostrils with an iron hook, and what cannot be reached with the hook is washed out with drugs;
next the flank is opened with a flint knife and the whole contents of the abdomen removed; the cavity is
then thoroughly cleaned and washed out, firstly with palm wine and again with an infusion of ground
spices. After that it is filled with pure myrrh, cassia, and every other aromatic substance, excepting
frankincense, and sewn up again, after which the body is placed in natron, covered entirely over for
seventy days – never longer. When this period is over, the body is washed and then wrapped from head
to foot in linen cut into strips and smeared on the underside with gum, which is commonly used by the
Egyptians instead of glue. In this condition the body is given back to the family who have a wooden case
made, shaped like a human figure, into which it is put. (Ikram, 54, citing Herodotus)

The second most expensive burial differed from the first in that less care was given to the body.

No incision is made and the intestines are not removed, but oil of cedar is injected with a syringe into
the body through the anus which is afterwards stopped up to prevent the liquid from escaping. The body
is then cured in natron for the prescribed number of days, on the last of which the oil is drained off. The
effect is so powerful that as it leaves the body it brings with it the viscera in a liquid state and, as the
flesh has been dissolved by the natron, nothing of the body is left but the skin and bones. After this
treatment, it is returned to the family without further attention. (Ikram, 54, citing Herodotus)

The third, and cheapest, method of embalming was “simply to wash out the intestines and keep the
body for seventy days in natron” (Ikram, 54, citing Herodotus). The internal organs were removed in
order to help preserve the corpse but, because it was believed the deceased would still need them, the
viscera were placed in canopic jars to be sealed in the tomb. Only the heart was left inside the body as it
was thought to contain the Ab aspect of the soul.

Funerals & Graves

Even the poorest Egyptian was given some kind of ceremony as it was thought that, if the deceased were
not properly buried, the soul would return in the form of a ghost to haunt the living. Ghosts were
considered a very real and serious threat, and grieving families were often hard-pressed to afford the
kind of funerary rites which the morticians advertised as the best in keeping the soul of the deceased
happy and the surviving family members ghost-free.

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As mummification could be very expensive, the poor gave their used clothing to the embalmers to be
used in wrapping the corpse. This gave rise to the phrase “The Linen of Yesterday” alluding to death.
“The poor could not afford new linens, and so wrapped their beloved corpses in those of 'yesterday'”
(Bunson, 146). In time, the phrase came to be applied to anyone who had died and was used by the Kites
of Nephthys (the professional female mourners at funerals) in their lamentations. Bunson notes, “The
deceased is addressed by these mourners as one who dressed in fine linen but now sleeps in the 'linen
of yesterday'. That image alluded to the fact that life upon the earth became 'yesterday' to the dead”
(146). The linen bandages were also known as The Tresses of Nephthys after that goddess, the twin sister
of Isis, became associated with death and the afterlife. The poor were buried in simple graves with those
artifacts they had enjoyed in life or whatever objects the family could afford to part with.

Sarcophagus of Kha (Detail)

by Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Every grave contained some sort of provision for the afterlife. Tombs in Egypt were originally simple
graves dug into the earth which then developed into the rectangular mastabas, more ornate graves built
of mud brick. Mastabas eventually advanced in form to become the structures known as 'step pyramids'
and those then became 'true pyramids'. These tombs became increasingly important as Egyptian
civilization advanced in that they would be the eternal resting place of the Khat and that physical form
needed to be protected from grave robbers and the elements.

The coffin, or sarcophagus, was also securely constructed for the purposes of both symbolic and practical
protection of the corpse. The line of hieroglyphics which runs vertically down the back of a sarcophagus
represents the backbone of the deceased and was thought to provide strength to the mummy in rising to
eat and drink. Instructions for the deceased were written inside the sarcophagus and are now referred to
as the Coffin Texts (in use c. 2134-2040 BCE) which developed from the Pyramid Texts (c. 2400-2300
BCE). These texts would eventually be developed further during the New Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1570 - c.
1069 BCE) as the Egyptian Book of the Dead (known to Egyptians as The Book of Coming Forth by Day, c.
1550-1070 BCE). All of these texts served to remind the soul of who they had been in life, where they
were now, and how to proceed in the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was the most comprehensive of the
three, instructing how to navigate in the afterlife down to the most minute detail.

SHABTI DOLLS WERE PLACED IN THE TOMB TO SERVE AS ONE’S REPLACEMENT WORKER WHEN CALLED
UPON BY THE GOD OSIRIS FOR SERVICE.

Provisioning the tomb, of course, relied upon one’s personal wealth, but among the artifacts everyone
wanted included were shabti dolls. In life, the Egyptians were called upon to donate a certain amount of
their time every year to public building projects like the pyramids, parks, or temples. If one were ill, or
could not afford the time, one could send a replacement worker. One could only do this once in a year or
else face punishment for the avoidance of civic duty. In death, it was thought, people would still have to
perform this same sort of service (as the afterlife was simply a continuation of the earthly one) and so
shabti dolls were placed in the tomb to serve as one’s replacement worker when called upon by the god
Osiris for service. The more shabti dolls found in a tomb, the greater the wealth of the one buried there.
As on earth, each shabti could only be used once as a replacement and so more dolls were to be desired
than less, and this demand created an industry to manufacture them. Most shabti dolls were made of
wood, but those for a pharaoh could be made of precious stone or metals.

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Once the corpse had been mummified and the tomb prepared, the funeral was held in which the life of
the deceased was honored and the loss mourned. Even if the deceased had been popular, with no
shortage of mourners, the funeral procession and burial was accompanied by Kites of Nephthys (always
women) who were paid to lament loudly throughout the proceedings. They sang The Lamentation of Isis
and Nephthys, which originated in the myth of the two sisters weeping over the death of Osiris, and
were supposed to inspire others at the funeral to an emotional release which would help them express
their grief. As in other ancient cultures, remembrance of the dead ensured their continued existence in
the afterlife and a great showing of grief at a funeral was thought to have echoes in the Hall of Truth
(also known as The Hall of Osiris) where the soul of the departed was heading.

Shabti Box

by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (CC BY-NC-SA)

From the Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE) on, the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony was performed
either before the funeral procession or just prior to placing the mummy in the tomb. This ceremony
again underscores the importance of the physical body in that it was conducted in order to reanimate
the corpse for continued use by the soul. A priest would recite spells as he used a ceremonial blade to
touch the mouth of the corpse (so it could again breathe, eat, and drink) and the arms and legs so it
could move about in the tomb. Once the body was laid to rest and the tomb sealed, other spells and
prayers, such as The Litany of Osiris (or, in the case of a pharaoh, The Pyramid Texts) were recited and
the deceased was then left to begin the journey to the afterlife.

Conclusion

After the tomb was sealed, the mourners would celebrate the life of the departed with a feast, usually
held right beside the grave. When the party was done, the people returned to their homes and resumed
their lives but the soul of the departed was thought to be just starting out on the next phase of their
eternal journey. The soul would wake in the tomb, be reassured and instructed by the texts on inside of
the sarcophagus and walls, and rise to be guided by the god Anubis to the Hall of Truth where its heart
would be weighed against the white feather of the goddess Ma'at under the supervision of Osiris and
Thoth.

If one's heart was found to be heavier than Ma'at's feather of truth, it was dropped to the floor where it
was consumed by a monster and one ceased to exist. If the heart was lighter, the soul continued on its
way toward the paradise of the Field of Reeds where one would live eternally. Even if one had lived an
exemplary life, however, one would not reach paradise if one's body had not been properly buried and
all the funerary rites followed in accordance with tradition. It is for this reason that proper burial rituals
were so important and were so strictly observed.

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About the Author

Joshua J. Mark

A freelance writer and former part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J.
Mark has lived in Greece and Germany and traveled through Egypt. He has taught history, writing,
literature, and philosophy at the college level.

Timeline

c. 6000 BCE - c. 3150 BCE

Burial rituals develop during the Predynastic Period in Egypt.

c. 4000 BCE

Depictions of gods and afterlife on walls of Egyptian tombs.

c. 3200 BCE

Hieroglyphic script developed in Egypt.

c. 3150 BCE - c. 30 BCE

Burial rituals in Egypt are strictly observed to ensure the eternal life of the soul, including
mummification, grave goods, and elaborate funerary rites.

c. 2670 BCE - c. 2650 BCE

The Step Pyramid is built by Imhotep under reign of King Djoser.

c. 2613 BCE - 2181 BCE

The pyramid tombs of Giza are constructed during the Old Kingdom period of Egypt.

c. 1550 BCE - 1070 BCE

Composition of the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Bibliography

Bunson, M.R. Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. (Gramercy Books, London, 1991).

Ikram, S. Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt. (Longman, 2003).

Nardo, D. Exploring Cultural History - Living in Ancient Egypt. (Thomson/Gale, 2004).

Oakes, L and Gahlin, L. Ancient Egypt. (Hermes House, London, 2008).

Lewis, J. E. The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness Ancient Egypt. (Running Press, 2003).

Shaw, I. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Wilkinson, R. H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. (Thames & Hudson, 2017).

Wilkinson, T. The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2013).

License

by Joshua J. Mark, published on 19 January 2013 under the following license: CC BY-NC-SA. This license
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