Ancient Egypt Mortuary Practices and Beliefs

Scenes from Harkhuf’s tomb at Qubbet el- Hawa (6 th Dyn)

The antechamber of Tutankhamun's Tomb (18 th Dyn): photograph by Harry Burton, drawing by Howard Carter, 1922; plans of the tomb

Painted niche-stone, Saqqara

Offering scene on the outer coffin of Prince Djehutynakht (late 11th or early 12th Dynasty) painted cedar wood, 115 × 263 cm; Museum of Fine Arts

Tomb of Meketre, Thebes (12 th Dyn) with shabtis in model granary (Met); photograph by Harry Burton, 1920

One of 399 shabti that Petrie found in the tomb of Horudja at Hawara near Faiyum and its spell (30 th Dyn); Manchester Museum The illuminated one, the Osiris, the Priest of Neith, Horudja, born to Shedet, justified, he says: O these ushabtis, if counted upon, the Osiris, the Priest of Neith, Horudja, born to Shedet, justified, to do all the works that are to be done there in the realm of the dead – now indeed obstacles are implanted there – as a man at his duties, “here I am!” you shall say when you are counted upon at any time to serve there, to cultivate the fields, to irrigate the river banks, to ferry the sand of the west to the east and vice–versa, “here I am” you shall say. Trans Glenn Janes

Egyptian mummies in the British museum

Khnum creating a man; Roman Birth House of the Temple of Hathor in Dendera ka and ba

The "weighing of the heart," from the Book of the Dead of Hunefer (19 th Dyn); British Museum

Judgment scene from the Book of the Dead.of Hunefer: Egypt’s fourteen gods seated in judgment; Anubis brings Hunefer into the judgment hall; Anubis weighs his heart as Ammit awaits the result and Thoth records; Horus presents Hunefer to Osiris, seated in his shrine with Isis and Nephthys British Museum

Natural mummy from Gebelein: one of six pit burials and a reconstruction in the British Museum (Naqada II, ca 3500)

Structure of a mastaba Tomb of Den

Map of Saqqara Tomb 3357 (1 st Dyn) Tomb 2302 (2d Dyn) Royal Tomb B (2d Dyn)

Niche-stones from Saqqara (2d Dyn)

Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex (3d Dyn) The serdab

The pyramids of Giza: Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure (4 th Dyn)

Giza pyramid plateau showing quarries and construction debris and hypothetical outlines of the construction ramps

Teti’s pyramid at Saqqara (6 th Dyn)

Plan of Saqqara

Floor plan of the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara (5 th Dyn) 1: Portico with two pillars 2: First serdab, visible through two narrow windows from the portico and from the courtyard 3: Pillared courtyard; a: false door of Demedj, Ti’s son 4: First corridor; b: false door of Nefer-Hetep-es (Neferhetepes), Ti’s wife, aligned with her tomb shaft (no. 9) 5: Second corridor 6: Storeroom 7: The chapel for Ti; c, d: false doors of Ti, aligned with his burial chamber (C) 8: Second serdab, visible through three narrow windows from the chapel 9: Tomb shaft for Nefer-Hetep-es (Neferhetepes), Ti’s wife The red outline outlines Ti’s burial chamber below the mastaba. A: descent from the courtyard B: sloping corridor C: burial chamber with D: Ti’s stone sarcophagus

View into the serdab of Ti’s mastaba, details of the walls, and one of the false doors

Scenes from Harkhuf’s tomb at Qubbet el- Hawa (6 th Dyn)

Tombs at Qubbet el-Hawa (6 th Dyn)

Palaeolithic700, BCE Saharan Neolithic Early Middle Late Predynastic Lower Egypt Neolithic Maadi Upper Egypt Badarian Naqada I (Amratian) Naqada II (Gerzean) Naqada III (Dynasty 0) 1 ST Persian Period (27 th -30 th ) d Persian Period Ptolemaic Period Macedonian Ptolemaic Roman30 BCE-642 CE