ALL YOU NEED TO KNOWABOUT YOUR DEATH

By

Liv Zeba

The Journey to Yaru

We Egyptians had many Religious beliefs. One of them is that there is another life, called afterlife, that starts after we die. We think that when we are alive and in the real world, it is just the start of our good life. The afterlife also known as the good life happens in Yaru, Heaven. After our bodies have been mummified and put into our coffins with all our possessions then our souls are ready for afterlife. On that night our two souls; Ba and Ka would come out. Bawould stay in the real world and keep watch, while Ka will go and enjoy the afterlife. An important thing that we should have in our tombs is The Book of The Dead. If we did not have this book in our tomb we wouldn’t be able to get to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead is written on Papyrus or linen. Before we get to Yaru and have a wonderful afterlife we have to go through Duat. Duat and Yaru had no similarities. In Yaru we would have a wonderful time in afterlife whereas in Duat we will have to face monsters, crocodiles, snakes, fire and many more dangerous things during the twelve hours we are there. When Ka did the protective spell and everything was under control our body is ready for Duat. When we go through Duat There will be twelve baboons, one for each hour which congratulated us on succeeding each attack during the time we were there in Duat. If we messed up on saying the spells we would be absolutely dead and there will be no afterlife for us but if we succeeded through Duat without getting injured then there would be one more extreme test for us to pass. Once we have arrived at the gates of Yaru, the gods; Anubis, Osiris, Thoth, Horus and the deadly monster Devourer await us. If we have been a good person when we were living then when Anubis weighed our heart against Ma’at’s feather our heart would be lighter and we would pass through the gates of Yaru. But if we didn’t lead such a good life, when Anubis weighed our heart against Ma’at’s feather, it would be heavier, which meant that trouble was awaiting us. Anubis will then give us to Horus so he could walk us to Osiris and we would be fed to the deadly monster Devourer. Thoth would be recording the results on a papyrus.

GODS AND GODDESSES:

Gods and goddesses are important to us because they believe that they are the pharaohs that give them what we need and give us help when we are in need for help. It is important to worship the gods because if you don’t it means you are bad and the bad people have a heavy heart ….. It is bad to have a heavy heart because then you will be judged as a bad person and you will not come through to Yaru.

WHY MUMMIFY?

You mummify people because it is important for your body to be preserved well for Ba and Ka to come in to your body and rest. Ba and Ka are your souls that are released when you die, Ba is the soul that has the body of a bird and your head, Ba flies around in the world and checks if your family and friends are ok and healthy. Ka is the spirit that has the body of a person and your head too, he is the one that goes to the afterlife. The body is dried out so it is still pretty much of how it was before.

THE MUMMIFICATION PROCESS:

When you mummify a person you wash the body first and then you take a hook and stick it up the nose of the dead person and then you squish the brain. After you have squished the brain you turn the body over and place a bowl under the nose and then the brain flows out of the nose. Now the liver the lungs, the stomach and the intestines, have to be pulled out of a hole about 10 centimeters over the leg, The body parts get put into Canopic jars which each has a god to protect them, each body part has their own jar with their own god. be sure not to pull the heart out! Then you cover the body in salt and leave it for 40 days to dry. When the 40 days are over you take the salt away and if the body is thinner and the skin is browner you are doing really well! Now you are ready to out the body into the tomb (or sand if person can’t afford a tomb. But beware of the Grave Robbers) you give the person magic spells written on the papyrus to protect you which we will tell more about later.

Decoration Of The Tombs

Since us Egyptians believed in life afterlife, we needed tombs for us to use after we died. The artists and workmen who were responsible for decorating the tombs used a variety of tool such as wood, metal and stone in the different stages. Once they have cut the tomb in the limestone bedrock, the walls were smoothened with copper and bronze chisel; the cracks were filled with plaster then they could start decorating. The artists and workmen filled the walls with plaster. When the walls dried they framed the walls with lines using a string dipped in red paint. After this they started the real decorations. The paint that is applied is made from vegetable material; reeds and bundles of grass. The colors that are most commonly used for decorating tombs are red, yellow, green, blue, white and black. The colors are made from different sources and they each represents something different; white represents purity, power and greatness, black represents death and night, red for life, victory and anger, yellow for gold and the eternal life of the sun god, blue for the water, sky, fertility, re-birth and green for vegetation and new life. In most tombs you will see a yellow background this refers to eternal life. You will see paintings on the wall of jewelry, tools and tables full of food. We have paintings in our tombs of all these things because we believe that when we say some words the painting would come to life and so if we had a table of food that would come to life, which meant that we would have a stock of fresh food.

Paddle Dolls

Did you know that the paddle dolls were not only made to play with?

They are used to serve us after we die. They are made out of thin pieces of wood, the hair is made out of strings, beads and mud. These dolls are dressed to be anything we want in the afterlife, for example; bakers, potters, or farmers. They are made with no feet so that they cannot run away from us.

Shabtis

The Shabtis are just like the paddle dolls but they are more expensive and normally only the rich people and the Pharoahs use them. They are made with more detail and have feet unlike the paddle dolls. Shabtis are made of wood, mud and stone. You can get them in all different sizes too.

Ra

Ra was the first Egyptian god to come to the world. It all started out like this. One normal happy day in Egypt by the Nile river there suddenly came a big egg floating down the river. After a while it cracked and out came the sun god Ra. After a while he started getting really bored, and he made to other gods. He made Nut and Geb the Sky god and the Earth god

Nut and Geb

Nut is the Sky god she is Ra’s daughter. Geb is the Earth god he is also Ra’s son. During the days they are split up by the god of the air; Shu. But during the night Nut comes down to meet Geb.

Osiris

Osiris is the god of the dead. He rules the underworld. He hasn’t always been the god of the dead. In the beginning he was the ruler of the world. This made his mean brother Set jealous and mad, he wanted to be Mr. Perfect. He invited his brother out for a walk since it was so god weather, And of course Osiris/Mr. Perfect said yes, because he was a kind caring person! As they went out and started to walk, Osiris was in a good mood and was enjoying the weather and the sounds and all those wonderful things! But…… Set had an evil plan, he had a knife with him! As Osiris looked away, Set stabbed him with the knife and Osiris died… Set chopped Osiris up in pieces, collected all the parts and threw them into the river Nile. Isis (Osiris’s wife) was waiting back home for him and as the time went by he still didn’t come. Isis went out to look for him, when she went past the River Nile she saw a leg floating down the river then an arm. This made Isis wonder. Isis went into a boat and picked up all the pieces of Osiris, she was really upset, she wanted Osiris to come back to life again. She went over to Anubis because he was the god of embalming, she thought he could put him back together. He was able to put him back together, but sadly he wasn’t able to make him come alive again… now he is the god of the dead! And he rules the underworld

Set

Set is also one of Ra’s many children. He is the jealous person who wants to be Mr. perfect and kills his own brother so he can turn into Mr. Perfect. But as you might know, you don’t get popular from doing mean things. Well set misunderstood that. He was beaten up in a fight with his nephew horus. But his nephew Horus lost an eye in the middle of their big fight.

Anubis

Anubis is the god of embalming. He is also the one who put Osiris’s body parts back together. Anubis has the head of a jackal and the body of a human. He is also the son of Ra.

Horus

Horus is Osiris’s and Isis’s son he was just a normal god with nearly no purpose. Until he found out what his mean Uncle Set had done to his father! That wasn’t something you could do and the just carry on and live and normal life! Oh no! he is going to go down! He went up to his mean Uncle Set and did what he had wanted to do for a long time, beat him up until he is truly sorry about what he did to Horus’s father. During the fight poor Horus lost an eye and luckily he beat Set up. Since he had killed Set he was turned into the god of the world!

Citations

Mummification. 2012 The British Museum . 25/02/12 <http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/home.html>.

Paddle Dolls. 2012 23/02/12 <http://moodle.zis.ch/file.php?file=%2F175%2FPaddle_dolls.pdf>.

Mummification . 2012 25/02/12 <http://moodle.zis.ch/file.php?file=%2F175%2FWhy_mummify.pdf>.

The Fate Of The Mummy. 2012 24/02/12 <http://moodle.zis.ch/file.php?file=%2F175%2FDuat_and_Weighing_of_the_Heart.pdf>.

The Funeral Ancient Egypt. 2012 Australian Museum . 27/02/12 <http://australianmuseum.net.au/Funerals-in-ancient-Egypt>.