The Pharaohs Used Art as a Kind of Spiritual Resume to Insure Their Elevated Status in the Afterlife

Why prepare for decease?

The aboriginal Egyptians believed that when they died their spiritual torso would keep to exist in an afterlife very similar to their living world. However, entry into this afterlife was not guaranteed. The expressionless had to negotiate a dangerous underworld journey and face the final judgment before they were granted admission. If successful, they were required to provide eternal sustenance for their spirit. These things could be achieved if proper preparations were made during a person'southward lifetime.

Preparations

A variety of different preparations were required. These included:

one. Purchase of minor funerary items

Funerary items for placement in the tomb were purchased from specialist shops or temples though wealthier people would commission items such as piece of furniture, expensive coffins and jewellery.
Items could be divided into two classes:

• those for protection and guidance on the underworld journey and in the afterlife, such as amulets, stelae and the Volume of the Dead (or other funerary texts);
• those for the provision of essential nourishment, leisure and comfort for their eternal spirit, such every bit nutrient, clothing and shabtis (small funerary statuettes).

Shabtis: workers for the afterlife

The dead were granted a plot of land in the afterlife and were expected to maintain it, either by performing the labour themselves or getting their shabtis to piece of work for them. Shabtis were small funerary statuettes inscribed with a spell that miraculously brought them to life, enabling the dead person to relax while the shabtis performed their physical duties.

Shabtis have a long history as funerary items for tombs. They first appear in the Middle Kingdom about 2100 BCE, replacing the retainer statuettes that were common in tombs of the Old Kingdom. Individually sculpted, they were designed to represent the possessor and only 1 or two were placed in a tomb. By nigh 1000 BCE shabtis became simplified in form, with the wealthy at present having 1 for every mean solar day of the twelvemonth and overseer shabtis to manage them. This was due mostly to an ideological shift – they now represented servants rather than the dead person. The last shabtis were used in the late Ptolemaic Period, as attitudes to death and the afterlife had changed.

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A statuette of Anubis, jackal-headed god of the dead in the course of a mummy. Information technology is a historical replica and is fabricated from wood and painted plaster. It is made in the way of ancient Egypt and probably related to the 19 dynasty from the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE).

Image: Abram Powell
© Australian Museum

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Amulets: the magic of charms

Many cultures and individuals, including some today, have placed great faith in symbolic jewellery similar amulets or charms. However, ancient Egyptians elevated the influence of jewellery to a greater level. They believed that amulets endowed the wearer with magical powers of protection and healing and besides brought good fortune. From an early age, they would wear a variety of these charms around the neck, wrists, fingers and ankles. Nigh were symbols related to a god or goddess so placed the wearer under their specific protection.

Protection and healing, especially in the context of resurrection, were particularly important in the afterlife so amulets were placed on various parts of the body during the wrapping procedure. Although in that location were hundreds of amulets that were available for apply, the last selection would depend on the person's wealth and private choice. Many amulets were required to be placed in fix positions on the mummy, usually relating to a certain part of the body or a position inside or outside the wrappings. Others had more than flexibility in their placement. Priests performed rites and said prayers as these amulets were placed.

Heartscarabs

The heartscarab was the most widely used amulet. Information technology was placed over the expressionless person'southward centre to protect it from existence separated from the torso in the underworld. The heart, which contained a record of all the person's deportment in life, was essential for the 'Weighing of the Heart Anniversary' equally it was weighed against the plumage of the goddess Ma'at. If the scales were balanced, the person passed and entered the afterlife. For those who were concerned near this test, they could recite the spell inscribed on their heartscarab to prevent their centre from 'betraying' them.

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Prototype: Heather MacKay
© Australian Museum

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2. Commissioning or buying a coffin

Coffins were probably the single most important slice of funerary equipment. To aboriginal Egyptians they were 'chests of life' with every aspect designed to protect the concrete body in this globe and too the spiritual body in the afterlife. To achieve this, almost every surface was covered with prayers and spells from funerary texts, important religious symbols, and scenes of various gods and goddesses associated with death, protection and the underworld. Although texts and imagery, and even shape (early coffins were rectangular in shape, the mummy-shaped coffins appeared in the Eye Kingdom, about 1900 BCE), changed over time as religious beliefs evolved, the general purpose remained the same.

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Coffin-making was an important and often expensive industry. Craftsmen would construct coffins of wood, or stone for royals, and and then scribes and painters busy them. The religious nature of the images and texts meant that these artists were usually associated with temple library workshops. In earlier periods, simply the very wealthy could afford to commission a coffin from a workshop. However, in later periods they were more affordable as 'mass production' became mutual. Cheaper coffins could be bought from the market place and were designed with spaces for personal touches such as a proper noun or championship.

iii. Building the tombs

Many years could exist spent on edifice and preparing tombs, which were known to the ancient Egyptians as 'houses of eternity'. They were usually built on the western bank of the Nile, in the country of the expressionless, and fabricated from non-perishable material such equally stone. This is in contrast to the mudbrick and harbinger houses that they occupied during their lifetime. All the same, they weren't merely houses for the spirit and trunk. The tomb itself, if built and designed properly, had the power of restoring life and giving immortality to the expressionless owner.

Preparing tombs correctly was a common theme in Egyptian texts. Master builders and supervisors were instructed to perform rituals during construction and guidelines were provided on where to build, how to blueprint, and too what materials to use.

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Source: https://australian.museum/learn/cultures/international-collection/ancient-egyptian/preparation-for-death-in-ancient-egypt/

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