Egyptian Afterlife

Write a one page paper on the Egyptian culture, specifically on the afterlife.

I have enjoyed learning about the Egyptian culture this week. We learned a lot about it, but in this paper, I’m going to focus on the afterlife. I know that sounds pretty dark, but they did many things to preserve the body, and I liked learning about it. They also believed in spirits of the afterlife, so I will also talk some about that.

After the person dies, they preserve the body using a process called mummification. Mummification is a long process (approximately 70 days) of removing parts of the body, and wrapping it for preservation. (if you would not like to read what the process was, don’t read the next paragraph.)

Before they did anything else, they removed the brain because at that time, they didn’t think the brain was important. Next, they removed the internal organs and put them in canopic jars for storing. After the organs were removed, they covered the body in natron powder to remove any moisture. After all those processes were complete, the Egyptians wrapped the body in linen bandages. If it were a rich person they were preserving, treasures like rings or necklaces would be wrapped in with them.

After mummification, priests would perform something called rituals. They did rituals because of what they believed in. After that, they would place the body in a coffin. Instead of the coffin, the early kings built mastabas for their tombs, and the later kings built pyramids. They did the rituals because of what they believed in.

If you asked me why I think the Egyptians put so much effort and emphasis in the afterlife, I’d say it would be because of what they believed in. They believed in two spirits of the afterlife, the “ka”, and the “ba”. Ka was double of the person’s spirit. Ba was the life force of the person. They wanted the spirits to be happy, so that’s why they went through the mummification process.

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you liked it!