Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Some of the earliest burial sites in ancient Egypt are of the Merimde culture, which dates to 4800-4300 B.C. [7] Located in the Nile delta, they are known for producing clay figurines, [8] but did not bury their dead with grave goods or offerings. [9]
One belief that was at the center of Egyptian beliefs about life after death was the belief in the ka. The ka was believed by the Egyptians to be one's life source, essence, and soul, which would live on in the afterlife. Egyptians also believed that the ka had to have a body to return to, and because of this belief, they would mummify their dead.
Some of the earliest known records of mellified corpses come from Greek historian Herodotus (4th century BCE) who recorded that the Assyrians used to embalm their dead with honey. [3] A century later, Alexander the Great 's body was reportedly preserved in a honey-filled sarcophagus , and there are also indications that this practice was known ...
Mortuary house is any purpose-built structure, often resembling a normal dwelling in many ways, in which a dead body is buried. Mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals. Mummies of humans and animals have been found on every continent. [16]
Initially, Egyptians thought that like Ra, their physical bodies, or Khat, would reawaken after they completed their journey through the underworld. [16] Once the Egyptians realized that the bodies of their dead would eventually decay, they started to see the remains of the dead as a vessel for the deceased's spirit.
Osiris, depicted as a mummy, receives offerings on behalf of the dead in this illustration on papyrus from a Book of the Dead.. A funerary cult is a body of religious teaching and practice centered on the veneration of the dead, in which the living are thought to be able to confer benefits on the dead in the afterlife or to appease their otherwise wrathful ghosts.
Alternative death rituals which emphasize one method of disposal – burial, cremation, or exposure – have gone through periods of preference throughout history. In the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the Neolithic era. Cultural groups had their own preferences and prohibitions.
Millions of mummified cats, birds, and other creatures were buried at temples honoring Egyptian deities. [80] [81] Worshippers paid the priests of a particular deity to obtain and mummify an animal associated with that deity, and the mummy was placed in a cemetery near the god's cult center.