EGYTPOLOGY: The mysterious burial practices in Ancient Egypt - Part #1

Paving the way to the afterlife

Today I want to give you some special insights into the burial practices of Ancient Egypt. Many people know already that the dead were mummified to preserve the body to „life in eternity“. But one of the most interesting habits was the use of so called canopic jars. These vessels are very common finds in tombs of kings and queens, but also of high officials who could afford an expensive burial. They were used through almost all times of the ancient egyptian culture to keep the inner organs separated from the body. These vessels then were stored often either directly next to the coffin or in a small niche in the wall of the tomb. Later they were also put in beautiful decorated boxes or even canopic shrines, which can be seen very often in the pharaonic burials of the New Kingdom (time of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Tutankhamun).

_{Image 2: Canopic box of the tomb of Tutankhamun}

During the mummification process the intestines had to be removed in order to dry out the body well and avoid decomposition in the tomb. But in the mind of the Ancient Egyptians they could only enter the afterlife with a complete body. So they preserved 4 organs in that special way. These 4 organs were: the lungs, the liver, the stomach and the gut.

And these organs were spiritually connected with the four sons of the God Horus and with four protecting Goddesses:

_{Image 3: Organs in the canopic jars, connected with Gods and Goddesses}

Sometimes the organs were just put into the canopic jars and then these vessels were sealed with bitumen (a natural black viscous liquid), or the organs themselves were mummified like a body and placed into coffin-like boxes. Later in the graeco-roman period the habit of using canopic jars decreased and often we find only "false jars" made of limestone or other materials with no organs inside.

_{Image 4 (left): Bitumen in a canopic jar / Image 5 (right): Inner organs mummified in a small coffin}

The heart

The heart was the place of the feeling and thinking.

It was removed and in general not preserved but often replaced by an amulett in the shape of a heart or heart scarab, made of precious stones. This was often the reason why tomb robbers destroyed the mummies directly in the tomb when they searched for the gems.

The brain

The brain was not so important for the people of Ancient Egypt. They supposed the heart to be the place of the soul. So, if you find a jar with a brain it is either a forgery or you maybe discovered the trashcan. ;) The brain was removed in earlier times through the nose or later by drilling a hole into the skull from behind. This last technique was at first not known by the Egyptologists, so when they discovered a cavity in the head of Tutankhamun after x-ray-scanning they thought to have found out the cause of his death. But this was a mistake. We still don’t know exactly why Tutankhamun died so early in his life. Some experts think it was a chariot accident or multiple organ failure through various deseases, but definitely not an injury of the skull.

The Ba and the Ka

The soul of the Ancient Egyptians were made of at least to parts: the Ba and the Ka. The Ka was the fixed part of the soul that had to be nourished and is written with the hieroglyph 𓂓. That’s why there are a lot wallpaintings in Egypt depicting food offerings to the Ka. The Ba was the movable part of the soul that accompanied the sun God Ra on his journey through the day. In the night the Ba came back to the dead person and reunited with the Ka.

That’s why the Ba is often depicted as a bird or as hieroglyphs in 𓅡 resp. 𓅽. To help this Ba-bird to come out of the body the dead person underwent a so called „ritual of the opening of the mouth“. In this ceremony the deceased was visited by a special priest, who „opened“ the mouth of the dead symbolic with a special „tool“. This ritual came along with the recitation of prayers and lithurgies to ease the way of the Ba to fly up to the sky.

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_{Image 8: Part of the famous papyrus "Hunefer" depicting the mouth opening ritual. On display in the British Museum EA9901,5}

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<sub>Sources:
1 Martin, Karl, in: Lexikon der Ägyptologie III, 1980, Col. 315–319, s.v. Kanopen.
2 Dodson, Aidan/ Ikram, Salima, The Mummy in Ancient Egypt. Equipping the Dead for Eternity, London 1998.
3 Dodson, Aidan, The Canopic Equipment oft he Kings of Egypt, London 1994.
4 Ceremony of mouth opening: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/religion/wpr.html
5 Ba-bird: https://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/1993/11/01/ba-bird/

Images:
Image used in the editorial picture: Source
Image 1: Tiradritti, Francesco / Luca, Araldo de, Die Schatzkammer Ägyptens. Die berühmte Sammlung des Ägyptischen Museums in Kairo, München 2000, p. 308.
Image 2: Tiradritti, Francesco / Luca, Araldo de, Die Schatzkammer Ägyptens. Die berühmte Sammlung des Ägyptischen Museums in Kairo, München 2000, p. 227.
Image 3: my own drawing and graphic
Image 4: Source
Image 5: Source
Image 6: Source
Image 7: Source
Image 8: Source</sub>

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