EGYPTION
Art Type : Painting
Mummification was an important part of the entire concept of an afterlife. A proper ritual had to be followed to mummify a dead person to ensure his or her resurrection in the future given they win the judgment for another life from the Egyptian gods. Before the old kingdom – the earliest of the Egyptian civilization, bodies buried in the deserts were naturally preserved by desiccation. But as time passed by, the wealthier Egyptians started to arrange for more elaborate artificial mummification.
By the period of New kingdom in the ancient Egyptian era, people had already perfected the art of mummification – the best of the techniques took almost 70 days and involved internal organs, the brain and desiccation of the body in a mixture of salts called natron. In the old kingdom, the Jackal-headed god Anubis would look after the burials of the kings. But he soon got replaced by Osiris somewhere during the middle kingdom.
Book Of The Dead
- Written around 11 to 7 century BC
This book consists of a number of magical spells that are supposedly used to assist a dead person’s journey through the underworld once they die, and then resurrect into the afterlife. The earliest of the spells were taken more the oldest of the manuscripts dating back to 3000 BC, and the newer spells were added later in the Egyptian history, recent ones written around 11 to 7 century BC.
