Burial Practices

Burial and Afterlife Beliefs

-When you die the Ancient Egyptian Priest prepare the dead for the afterlife.

-The Ancient Egyptians believed that every spirit had an afterlife which that person
would have another life and soon after become a God .

- The Egyptians strongly believed that afterlife continued after you were dead. They
believed your Ka (or spirit) would not enjoy the afterlife unless you were prepared
for burial in a certain way.

-The Egyptians did not want the bodies to decay so they developed a process called
embalming which stopped the body from decaying.

The Burial Process

-Egyptians considered conserving a body a sacred process that involved several
steps. First the priest removed all the bodies internal organs except the heart. They
placed the orgins in canopic jars which were made of limestone and clay.

-They removed the Brain by hooding it through the nostrils. After they removed the
brain they threw it into the river.

-The only orgin they did not remove was the heart so they could have a happy
afterlife.

- Then they put the body in a wooden box and put a kind of salt called natron on the
body. The natron helped dry out and preserve the body. After aproximetly 40 days
they covered and washed the body and then they put oil and then they wrapped the
body with a several hundred yards of fabric. Sometimes after the fabric was put on
they would apply momia, which was a black gooey substance.

The Burial Begins

-After the embalming was done the body was ready for burial. The Ancient
Egyptians buried their peoples with items so they could live in the afterlife.

-The items that were buried with them would be something like food, water, jewelry,
clothes, and games. Burial cerimones were different depending on how important
the person was.

- If it was a king that was being buried the ceremony would be very large. If it was a
village locksmith the ceremony would be very small.

-Poor people were normally not embalmed unless a

relative or a friend payed for it.

Burial of Poor People

- Were buried in the sand or in the dirt.

-Were most of the time not embalmed.

-Most likely were discarded in clothing and buried in the

ground.

Pharaoh’s Burial Process

-The priest put the pharaoh’s body inside a coffin and then
put them in their tomb or pyramid if they had one.

-Pharaoh’s had the grandest funerals by far.

- The coffin was also put in a sarcophagus which is a large stone

container; surrounded the sarcophagus with all the necessities
for the afterlife. Picture on left

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/explore/main.html
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/home.html
Picture on right