The Role Of Religious Rituals In Ancient Egyptian Culture
Religious rituals are intimately connected to the core religious or spiritual beliefs held by a particular faith group. These beliefs are demonstrated through various elements of a religious ritual. These elements include: the place, time, participants, leader, pattern, symbols and the transforming power. The ancient Egyptian death ritual firmly supports their sacred beliefs. The Egyptians had an intricate set of burial customs that they believed essential to ensure their immortality after death (Brandt, 1999). The Ancient Egyptian civilization was based on religion; their belief in the rebirth after death became their driving force behind their funeral practices. The ancient Egyptian death ritual included mummification, magic spells, and possessions,
…show more content…
When a person died, the family would bring the body of the deceased to the embalmers where the specialists “produce specimen models in wood, graded in quality” (Ikram, 1953). The range of choices in burial dictated the kind of coffin one would be buried in, the funerary rites available and, also, the treatment of the body. In the expensive form of burial, the body of the deceased was laid out on a table and the brain removed. The second most expensive burial differed from the first in that less care was given to the body. The third, and cheapest, method of embalming was “simply to wash out the intestines and keep the body for seventy days in natron salt” (Ikram, …show more content…
The heart was left inside the body, as it was believed to contain the Ab part of the soul. And the brain was discarded, as it was not believed to be important.
The body was then wrapped with protective amulets placed between layers of linen and placed in a decorated coffin. As mummification could be very expensive, the poor gave their used clothing to the embalmers to be used in wrapping the corpse (Bunson, 146). The poor were buried in simple graves with personal artifacts they had enjoyed in life or whatever objects the family could afford to part with (British Museum, 2013).
The coffin, or sarcophagus, was also constructed for the purposes of both symbolic and practical protection of the deceased. A long line of hieroglyphics runs down the back of the sarcophagus represents the backbone of the deceased and was thought to provide strength and support to the mummy in rising to eat and drink (Dunn,
When a person died, the family would bring the body of the deceased to the embalmers where the specialists “produce specimen models in wood, graded in quality” (Ikram, 1953). The range of choices in burial dictated the kind of coffin one would be buried in, the funerary rites available and, also, the treatment of the body. In the expensive form of burial, the body of the deceased was laid out on a table and the brain removed. The second most expensive burial differed from the first in that less care was given to the body. The third, and cheapest, method of embalming was “simply to wash out the intestines and keep the body for seventy days in natron salt” (Ikram, …show more content…
The heart was left inside the body, as it was believed to contain the Ab part of the soul. And the brain was discarded, as it was not believed to be important.
The body was then wrapped with protective amulets placed between layers of linen and placed in a decorated coffin. As mummification could be very expensive, the poor gave their used clothing to the embalmers to be used in wrapping the corpse (Bunson, 146). The poor were buried in simple graves with personal artifacts they had enjoyed in life or whatever objects the family could afford to part with (British Museum, 2013).
The coffin, or sarcophagus, was also constructed for the purposes of both symbolic and practical protection of the deceased. A long line of hieroglyphics runs down the back of the sarcophagus represents the backbone of the deceased and was thought to provide strength and support to the mummy in rising to eat and drink (Dunn,