The Magic of Mummies

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The Magic of Mummies

• How was magic used in the Egyptian world?

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Essential Questions

• Why did the Egyptians preserve the bodies of the
  dead through mummification?
• How was mummification important to the Egyptian
  religious beliefs?
• Why use magic how was magic used in the Egyptian
  world?
• What objects/décor might be found in a tomb? Why?

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Essential Questions Cont.

• Explain the mummification process (in steps). How
  are humans and people preserved how did
  geography play a role prior to pyramid building?
• How and why was the tomb of King Tut recovered?
  In what way was finding the tomb helpful?
• How do we know what the burial/mummification of a
  royal person was like?
• What evidence do we have that Egypt was declining
  in the 21st dynasty?

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Why did the Egyptians believe in an afterlife?

• The geography was ideal the hot, dry climate
  naturally dehydrated the bodies when buried
  (before the construction of pyramids).
• As a result, the bodies were easily preserved.
• Since the geography allowed for natural
  preservation the religious belief of an
  afterlife rose out of this notion.
• The Egyptians would be able to go on to a life
  after death fully preserved.

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Why mummification was a religious practice

• The regularity of the climate allowed Egyptians
  to resort to mummification and created this
  notion of resurrection rising again.
• The Egyptians believed that if the body was fully
  preserved with all vital organs intact they
  would go on living exactly as they did while on
  earth, in the next life.

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Religious beliefs associated with mummification

• Ancient Egyptians believed when a person died,
  his/her spirit would travel west to the Duat
  (land of the dead) to face a test called
  weighing of the heart.
• During the test, each spirit was summoned forward
  to see Osiris lord of the dead and to make
  its final pleas.
• Afterwards the spirit rested its case and let
  Anubis a jackal headed god, weigh the
  deceaseds heart against the Feather of Truth.

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Anubis Osiris
Anubis
Osiris
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Religious Beliefs associated with mummification

• If the heart was heavier than the Feather of
  Truth, it meant the spirit had lied. The spirit
  would be condemned to hell.
• If the heart was lighter than the Feather of
  Truth, it meant the spirit had not lied. The
  heart would be saved and the deceased would be
  reborn and granted the opportunity to live in
  heaven The Field of Reeds.

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Magic and its use in the Egyptian World.

• The Egyptians relied on magic to ensure good
  fortune, to protect them from evil and to ensure
  a successful afterlife.

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Magic and its use in the Egyptian World.

• Magic was used to explain the unexplainable to
  explain physical phenomena.
• The Egyptians resorted to magic when they had a
  specific goal.
• When they wanted to be healed, fall in love,
  ensure a certain fate.
• Encirclement encircle everything important to
  use power of the gods to protect themselves from
  evil/demons.
• Present-day magic sand from the Egyptian
  temples.

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Magic vs. Religion

• For the Egyptians religion and magic were closely
  linked.
• Religionbeliefs
• Magicthe way in which they often practiced or
  carried out their religious beliefs.

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• The Egyptians believed that in death you
  really could take it with you.

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• For this reason, the pharaohs spent their entire
  reign preparing for their mummification, burial
  and afterlife.
• The pharaohs took with them what ritual
  practice suggested they would need in the next
  life.

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Objects/décor found in a tomb

• Sarcophagus house for eternity.
• Canopic Jars contain organs.
• Magical spells needed to guide and nourish
  pharaoh on his journey to the underworld (spells
  also promised eternal supply of food).

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Objects/décor found in a tomb

• Tomb Wall Art servants were depicted to
  help/serve pharaoh in death.
• Art magical practice the art illustrated in
  the tomb always had both arms and legs drawn to
  ensure their existence in the afterlife. The
  servants would be of no use with only one arm or
  one leg. So all essential body parts were
  represented.
• Tomb Art also depicted a pharaohs
  accomplishments in life and their goals/desired
  life after death.

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King Tut Tomb Interior
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Objects/décor cont.

• Pharaohs were also buried with a collection of
  lavish gold jewelry amulets (often scarab
  amulets beetle to exist) and whatever other
  precious items the pharaoh thought he/she needed
  to be comfortable and successful in the
  afterlife.
• Oftentimes animals (cats specifically) were
  mummified and included.

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The Mummification Process

• After the pyramids were built the Egyptians
  needed to find a way to preserve the dead the
  combination of the sun and dry sands would no
  longer naturally preserve the dead within the
  pyramids.
• Since the Egyptians believed that a persons body
  was home of the persons spirit and that without
  the body the spirit would have no place to
  livethe Egyptians decided that they needed to
  provide alternate ways to preserve the body
  mummification.

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• Please view the Mummification worksheet to review
  the mummification process
• ( in steps ).

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Additional Mummification Facts

• After the organs were taken care of, the
  embalmers began embellishing the body. They
  stuffed it with things like linens and sawdust in
  order to give the empty, sapped shape a life-like
  appearance. They massaged it with oil and
  perfume to make the dried skin supple and smell
  nice. They poured melted pine resin over it to
  stop it from going moldy. They placed a plate
  bearing the sacred symbol of the protective eye
  of Horus over the incision cut on the abdomen to
  cover the wound and to ward off evils. They put
  wigs on the deceaseds head and drew make-up on
  the face. Once they finished dressing up the
  body, they laid out lots of linens. They wrapped
  the head, fingers, toes, arms and legs first,
  followed by the torso. They used resin as the
  adhesive and bandaged the whole body in as many
  as twenty layers. They placed numerous amulets
  and spells in between the layers, and covered the
  head with a mummy mask. After the last layer of
  bandaging was done, they waterproofed it by
  pouring one last coating of resin over it. They
  then put the mummy into a mummy case and set out
  to the burial ground.

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Additional Mummification Facts

• At the site of the tomb, right before the
  funeral, one person from the embalming team held
  the mummy case upright, while the others tapped
  it on the face with sacred tools opening of
  the mouth allowed the mummy to see, hear, eat
  and drink in its afterlife.

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The Discovery of King Tuts Tomb

• Once the pyramids were built the Egyptians had to
  worry about the tomb robberies. Hidden doors,
  dead end passages and false chambers in most
  cases only delayed but did not stop tomb robbers.
  

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The Discovery of King Tuts Tomb

• As a result, the pharaohs decided to take more
  secretive measuresthey created The Valley of the
  Kings tombs hollowed out of the rocky cliffs.
  Instead of the large obvious pyramids, small
  rooms with hidden entrances and rubble piled over
  the doors became the burial places of later
  Egyptian pharaohs.
• Even still, the pharaohs tombs often ran the
  risk of being ransacked. The exception was King
  Tuts tomb.

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Why?

• King Tut a minor pharaoh.
• He died in his teens.
• He was placed in an insignificant tomb there
  wasnt enough time to prepare for a authentic
  royal burial because he died suddenly.

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King Tuts TombHidden?
The first room they came to was a fake and it had
a hidden door that led to the main chamber. From
the main chamber two rooms split off. There was a
storage room and the burial chamber where the
mummy was laid.
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What did we learn?

• While we learned very little about King Tut and
  very little about mummification since his body
  was poorly preserved (not enough time) we were
  able to visualize what a royal burial/mummificatio
  n would have been like comparatively for a
  pharaoh that may have reigned for over 60 years
  or so.

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A Royal Burial

• A royal stash of mummies was finally found in a
  underground crevice near the Valley of Kings.
• This marked the first time in history an
  authentic royal mummy had been found not
  counting King Tut.
• It was the first time archaeologists could truly
  study what mummification/burial was like for
  royalty.
• The coffins were then moved to Cairo where they
  could be further scrutinized.

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Evidence supporting the weakening of Egypt

• Archaeologists have argued that Egypt had been
  in decline around the 21st dynasty

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Why?

• It was at this time that the mummies found in the
  underground crevice near the Valley of the Kings,
  had been moved there by the pharaoh since the
  Egyptians could no longer protect the mummies
  treasures from foreign intruders.
• Gradually Egyptian art became overwritten and
  adapted by the Greeks.