Ancient Egyptian Afterlife By: Kate and Ivan

Did you know that the afterlife is a place of happiness? When a pharaoh died, the ancient Egyptians believed that death was not the end, but the beginning.  You will be reading about the process of mummification, how they died, and the afterlife.

Welcome to Egypt.

How they died

Many pharaohs died because of sickness diabetes, but they died with peace and happiness. Not many people know what caused the fatal sicknesses. When the pharaohs died, Egyptians believed that they will go to another world or afterlife. Scientist’s have been researching what caused the sicknesses and they have taken tests on the mummies, and till today they still haven’t found proof of how they died. This is why we are doing death, because death is a natural thing. Like Ivan said, death is not the end, but the beginning.

The Process of Mummification

Not many Egyptians could afford such luxury to be mummified, but lucky for us, we can see how it’s made.

First, the embalmers cut open into the side of the body, removing the liver, both lungs, and the intestines then put each of them in their own canopic jar. They removed the brain with a long hook, inserted through the nose, crushed the brain and scooped out. The Egyptians did this because they thought the brain was useless. They left the heart intact in the body because it was thought to be the seat of intelligence and life force.

Second, the body was washed with the water from the Nile River after embalming, rubbed with sweet smelling oils for smell, and then dried covered with natron (salt) from inside out so the mummy wouldn’t decompose. The next step for mummifying the body was to coat it with resin (a type of cement that is a dark brown color) to make it look realistic.

Last was wrapping the body. A priest chanted from The Book of the Dead to ensure the mummy would safely arrive to the afterlife, while hundreds of yards of linen were used to wrap the body. Amulets made of precious gems and metals, shaped of gods, the eye of Horus, scarabs, and many more were tucked in between the layers around the whole body were also used for safety and good fortune. It took about 70 days to complete the process of preserving the mummy.

In the end, you have mummy jerky, wrapped and ready for eating! Just kidding, though, I would eat it. You have a mummy, ready for the land of paradise, and to be left alone for the next thousands of years.

The hall of Ma’at (or The Hall of Judgment)

When the pharaoh dies, he goes into “The Hall of Ma’at” The gods take out the pharaoh’s heart and weigh it with an ostrich feather. If the heart was heavier than the feather, then it means that the pharaoh did many cruel things in his life, and as punishment, the gods set loose a monster that had a face of an alligator, upper body of a lion, and the lower body of a hippopotamus. If the heart was lighter than the feather, then the pharaoh had a pure soul and was free to go to the afterlife.

Arriving to the Afterlife

Death was not beloved to be the last stage of life, but the stage in which a person was at rest for revivification.

Egyptians believed each person had a physical body and a “ka”, a life force that continued after death. The ka needed the same substances as the living, even in death, so food was mummified and went inside the tomb. Sometimes, the higher ranked Egyptians wanted their pets to join them in the afterlife, so the embalmers mummified them too.

The dead needed to rejoin its ka after death to regain life, but the physical body cannot go from the tomb to the underworld, so their “ba” or personality went instead. When the ba and ka reunited, they reanimated the “akh”. The akh was the soul to be effective in the afterlife. The reanimation was only possible if the proper funeral rites were used, followed by constant offerings.

                After they reunited, the ba and ka turn to the sky and forever become a spirit   

Conclusion

In conclusion, mummification, death, and the afterlife were very interesting subjects to research. Now we know every body has separate cultures and different beliefs. The important thing is that it doesn’t matter what kind.

So, there you have it, a few of your questions, and we hope that this report fulfilled your thirst of Egyptian death. J

Ancient Egyptian Laws (Misael Macario)

Crimes, Punishments, and Death Penalty

          Did you know who began and invented the Death Penalty? There were many laws in Ancient Egypt. Crimes were a little crime like stealing something from the store or somewhere. The Death Penalty was whoever breaks the Ma’at or a big crime.This paper will focus on Laws, Punishments, Crimes, and last one but not least Death Penalty.

Laws

            When it came to Laws, many of them involved Punishments to fit Crimes. The universal law strictly observed in Egypt. They really followed the law, but if they didn’t respect that rule they will have consequences. The Ancient Egyptian laws were headed and dominated by the Pharaoh. That means that Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh’s made up those rules. The Laws included crime such as murder, theft, sacrilege, and attempt to spy on the Pharaoh. Breaking this law would cause a punishments or Death Penalty. Therefore their laws were taking seriously.

Crimes and Punishments

            Capital Punishment in Egypt can be traced back to the Ancient Egypt. Other punishment included branding, exile, mutilation, drowning, beheading, and burning alive. That was their punishment if they didn’t respect the law. If someone was caught doing something bad their punishment will be savage or they would take that criminal to the pharaoh and the pharaoh will chose the punishment. This is trying to say is the pharaoh will chose that punishment. One of the punishments were one hundred strokes of cane, and if the crime was worse, five bleeding cuts were added. Whoever does something really bad they will cause themselves DEATH.

Death Penalty

            Death penalty was applied whoever killed a bunch of Ancient people. Death penalty is applied whoever breaks the Ma’at. Whoever breaks the Ma’at they would die by the Death Penalty. One of the Death Penalty was methods of execution included beheading, sacrifice, and drowning in the Nile River in a closed sack. If they do something worse they will burn them alive and drowning with a closed sack. Death Penalty was whoever was stealing things from the Pharaoh’s tomb and get in then pyramid. These are some of the things they don’t want to see.

 Oh well did you learn anything today? I wish you did. You learned about the Laws, Crime, punishments, and Death Penalty. In the time Pharaohs ruled Egypt but they had their punishments , and laws. Never disrespect the laws.