Death Afterlife and Mummification of Egyptians

Death Afterlife and Mummification

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The Egyptians believed that people had many different parts : the ka, the person's spirit; the ba, a person's soul; and the akh, the person's supernatural abilities. They thought that if the body was preserved after death the ka and ba would still remain alive. This is why the Egyptians thought mummification was so important.

Preparing the Mummy
The priest would lay down the body in a place called ‘Beautiful House’ near a temple and would remove the brain in pieces (the brain was thought to be useless!) using a wire through the person's nostril. Then the mouth was cleaned out and filled with sweet oil scented linen.

This was followed by a priest in a mask of the jackal headed god who would draw a line down the side of the body, before cutting it open down the line. The priest took out all internal organs except the heart. The body and organs were then covered for 40 days in natron (a form of salt) until they were dry. The organs were wrapped in linen like the mummy and put in four containers called canopic jarswhich were placed in the tomb with the body.

The body was then sewn up again with onions or painted white stones put into the eye sockets. Spices were used to fill up the spaces where the organs once were and the body was then wrapped up with 150 metres of linen or special cloth given to people by the temple. Around 100 amulets were placed in the bandages to make it stronger.

When in the tomb, the akh would begin its trip to the ‘hall of judgement’. It was judged against 42 different crimes.

A god known as Anubis would hold the scales with the person's heart in one pan of the scales, and a feather in the other. Every time the person committed a crime in his/her life, the heart would get heavier. At the end, if the heart was heavier than the feather, the Gobbler, a lion, crocodile and hippo monster, would swallow it, turning the akh into an evil spirit. If it was lighter, it would live with Osiris in the fields of Yalu, a place more beautiful than Egypt.

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