Burial Practices

Michael
Sixth Period
September 9, 2009

Afterlife
• A huge part of Egyptian Culture is the afterlife, a life after death.
• The Ka was the spirit of the Pharaoh that lived on in the afterlife.
• If the dead person did not have a proper burial, his or her Ka, or spirit, wouldn't
have an afterlife.
• If the body decayed, the person wouldn't have an afterlife because the Ka
wouldn't be able to identify the Pharaoh.
• When the Pharaoh died, he was no longer the god Horus, and he became Osiris,
the ruler of the underworld.

To see image in its original
location:
ummies/explore/main.html
Embalmin
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• The Egyptians prevented the body from decaying by
inventing a process
• called embalming.
• Embalming involves many steps.
• The first step is to remove all of the inner organs except
for the heart. The Priest usually does this.
• The organs are put into canopic jars.
• The brain is removed by hooking it and pulling it out
through the nostrils.
• The body was then put in a wooden box and natron, a
salt, was poured on the body to dry it out.
• After 40 days, the Priest washed and put oils on the body.
• He then wrapped the body.
• Sometimes momia was spread over the body.

Burial
• Items to be used in the afterlife were buried with the dead.
• The items were everyday items and possessions of the dead.
• Poor people were not embalmed most of the time.
• Wealthier people had funerals and were buried in tombs.
• Pharaohs had the largest funerals, and were buried in a sarcophagus.
• The Pharaohs were buried with riches and precious possessions.

The Pharaoh’s
Temple
•
Food and supplies were brought to the
temple three times every day for the Ka.
• The Ka had to have all the supplies he used
in his first life.
• Temples helped the Egyptian economy.
• The temples had:
o granaries, breweries, bakeries,
weavers who produced cloth and
linen for the Ka, goldsmiths and
jewelers who made jewelry for the Ka, and the temple traded regularly
To see the image in its original
location: with other countries

http://www.akhet.co.uk/dendera
h.htm
Sources:
Dersin, Denise, ed. What Life was Like on the Banks of the Nile. Alenxdria: Virginia,
1997 Print.
Burial Practices Placard (in the public domain)