AN N EA M130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Coffin Texts, Pyramid Texts, Social Isolation
12 Nov 2018
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Lecture 16: 5/30
Death
• Concepts of death
o Dismemberment
o Dissociation of personhood
o Social isolation
o Injustice
o Journey
• Sources
o Textual
▪ Pyramid Texts Old Kingdom
▪ Coffin Texts Middle kingdom
▪ Book of the Dead New Kingdom & after
o Visual
▪ Scenes of burial procession
▪ Scenes of survivors performing mortuary cult
o Material
▪ Tomb, chapel, ka-statue
▪ Mummy, coffin, canopic jars, amulets, etc.
▪ Funerary offerings
• Stages of burial
o Crossing Nile from east to west
o Mummification in wabet
o Vigil, night before burial
o Procession to tomb
o Opening of Mouth ritual
o Burial
o Funerary banquet for survivors
o Mortuary cult, maintained by survivors
• Constituents of individual’s personality
o Body/corse
o Heart
o Ka
▪ Trapped in the tomb
▪ Can interact through the ka statues
▪ Has a physical human presence that can interact with the living
▪ Aspect of the soul
o Ba
▪ Bird with the human head
▪ Mobile, spiritual
▪ Aspect of the soul
o Name shadow
• We have indications that show there were strategic places to put funerary objects on the body
o Like placing an amulet at a specific place or putting gold on the fingers
• New Kingdom private tomb
