Ancient Egyptian Belief in the Afterlife
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The remains of ancient Egyptian civilization speak of a cultural obsession with death and the problem of an afterlife It could be argued that the extent of the Egyptians' interest in the subject is distorted by the fact that most remains simply happen to be related to death. But the tombs have lasted to a great degree because they were carefully isolated and were nearly the only objects that the Egyptians created using permanent materials. This spectacular evidence from the age of the pyramids shows a culture in which the attempt to pass beyond the apparent limits of death was given the highest priority. In the Old Kingdom, 2658-2135 B.C., the pharaohs devoted incredible amounts of time-and resources to the construction of the pyramids in preparation for their passage after death. But evidence shows that graves of humbler sorts also demonstrate a similar concern with the passage beyond life on earth. Thus, it appears, the concentration of resources on the tombs of kings was not merely an exercise of self-interested power. Though there is no certain answer to many questions about the religious and social importance of the tombs and the death rites of the pharaohs it may be that their deaths had enormous significance as major interruptions in the life of a culture whose self-concept was based on the notion of unbroken continuity. The ascension of the pharaoh into the afterlife was a means of ensuring continuity and, thereby, assuring the people that life would go on as
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for example, over whether the living kings were believed to be gods. But most scholars agree that the kings definitely became gods after death. Regardless of the degree of the king's divinity, he was clearly the guarantor of ma'et. The king's death, therefore, was an intolerable threat to the established order and became "a moment of almost unbearable psychological tension" for Egypt (Jenkins 144). The funeral rites that surrounded the pharaoh's death were a means of assuring continuity, the basis of the ma'et. In the lengthy time between death and final burial the king was guarded by secrecy and painstaking observation of elaborate ritual. He was not regarded as being dead but as lying in a "weak and powerless condition" prior to being sent on his final journey (Jenkins 145). Until the burial was complete the heir was not even recognized as pharaoh, for the simple reason that there could not be two pharaohs at one time. The dead king was always a king and the rites surrounding his death ensured that his status would remain unchanged as he went into the afterlife. The institution of kingship was thus never disrupted and no representative of it came to an end -- maximum efforts had been exerted to be sure that change was
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2216
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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