by Frances Stanford

Created on: September 12, 2008   Last Updated: January 13, 2010

In ancient Egypt, death was not seen as the end of life. Rather it was seen as the beginning of a new life the afterlife. There were many rituals associated with death and careful preparations were needed to prepare the person for dying and the life that was to come. It was important for people to take things with them that they would need in this new life, which included models of the people that were important to them. It was believed that these models would also come to life on the other side and prove helpful to the dead person. They also needed to take food, clothes and tools with them.

When a person died in ancient Egypt, the first step was that of mummifying the body. The preservation of the body was essential for the person to be able to live in the afterlife, which meant that the main purpose of mummification was to preserve the person's identity. The ancient Egyptians believed that each person had a soul, called ka, which had to be reunited with ba and akh in order for this person to be able to ascend to the heavens.

During the mummification process, the inner organs of the body were removed and a resin coating was applied inside and outside the body for preservation. The body was then wrapped in linens in which there were talismans and religious amulets embedded. The organs were preserved separately and stored in four jars, with each jar containing one body organ. These jars represented the four sons of Horas, an important god in the ancient Egyptian religion. The heart was never removed from the body because this part of the body contained the soul. Once it was prepared the mummy was then placed inside a series of nested coffins.

Each person had a Book of the Dead buried with them. This book contained spells and incantations that a person might need in the afterlife to ward off evil and danger. In the days before this was an actual book, the spells were printed on the walls of the tomb.

According to the belief of the ancient Egyptians, when a person died, their soul was judged by the god of mummification, Anubis, in a place called Duat and the heart was weighed against the weight of a feather. If the outcome was positive, the soul of the dead person moved on to Aaru which was the same as what we conceive of as being heaven. If the person did not live a good life, then the demon Ammit ate the body parts in the jar along with the heart and the dead person was condemned to remain in Duat for eternity. To them a heart that did not weigh as much as a feather was good signifying that this person did not have any guilt or sins. Since they believed the heart contained the soul, once the heart was destroyed so was the person's identity.

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