Many Egyptians believed in the afterlife and that it was a happy place. After a person passes away, a spirit called the Ka lived on. Most pharaohs were mummified by embalmers, or people who embalm mummies, to preserve the royal Ka. Why did they mummify only Egyptians from the elite? An elite is a person of wealth and power, and only Egypt’s elite could be mummified because they were the only ones with enough money to be mummified. The mummification process starts when the god Anubis prepared the body.
After the body was prepared, embalmers would cut open the body and remove all the organs except for the heart. The organs were kept in a jar next to the mummified body. Next, embalmers applied special oils and a special substance to the body. Then, embalmers proceed to wrap the dry body with linen cloths and bandages. Lastly, the wrapped-up body is placed in a coffin called a sarcophagus next to the jar with the organs in it. When an Egyptian died, s/he went to the afterlife. Going to the afterlife means bringing luggage, and you wouldn’t want to be in the afterlife without luggage.
The afterlife was called the Land of Two Fields. Preparing grave goods is one of the things you have to do before going into the afterlife. After an Egyptian dies, the grave goods are buried with them. Osiris, the god of the afterlife, was greatly honored for discovering the afterlife. To earn your way into the afterlife, you had to do more than dying. Doing good deeds was one of the things you had to do to be able to enter the afterlife. The more good deeds you did, the lighter your heart got. If your heart is too heavy, you can’t board Ra’s ship and enter the afterlife.
Due to this theory of light hearts, there weren’t many crimes in ancient Egypt. Other than doing good deeds, you also had to have your name written down somewhere and your body preserved. There were five distinctive parts that each person had: the Akh, the Ba, the Ka, the Name, and the Shadow. Egyptians believed that these five parts were what made up a person. The Akh was the physical body. The Akh was referred to when describing a living or dead body. The Akh was made up of all five of these distinctive elements. The Ba was a person’s personality.
It made each and every one person unique. In hieroglyphs, the Ba was referred to as a bird with a human head. The Ba was believed to be able to fly through both worlds, both the afterlife and the world of the living. Everyone was born with a Ka. The Ka was a life force. It was pictured as a very little man next to the same man that was much larger. Other times, it was represented with two outstretched arms, which was a sign to ward off evil. As a person died, the Ka continued to live, still needing the same nutritions as it did if the body were still alive.
Instead of eating real food, they would absorb the life giving force that paintings of food had. Stated in paragraph four, your name had to be written down to be able to enter the afterlife. The fifth part of a person is the shadow. The Shadow is known to have great power. It was considered protection. Before the afterlife, people had to be prepared by packing. Three things I would bring into the afterlife would be books, cats, and education. There would be more things I would bring into the afterlife, but these are my top three.
One of the things I would be bringing into the afterlife would be books. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and I read about two hours a day. If there were no books for me to read in the afterlife, I would have nothing to do all the time (there also would be no television). Even though I would also bring education into the afterlife, I still think that I’d like to read my own books of choice. Another thing I would bring into the afterlife would be cats. I have five cats, (three kittens, two older cats), and I don’t think they could survive without anyone around.
Including cats, would also bring cat food, water, and places for them to sleep. With no experience on how to take care of pets, I don’t think I would be able to take care of anything myself. Even though family is more important than cats, cats are a good example of how to take care of other people. The last thing I would bring into the afterlife would be education. Even though education isn’t everyone’s favorite, it still would be important to know the things that I need to know, like math and science.
Included with education would be a school, friends, teachers, pencils, paper, and textbook conclusion, the afterlife would be a happy place. There would be more things that I would bring into the afterlife, but these are just my top three. Even though the mummification process was only for Egypt’s elite, there were still many people in the afterlife, and many people hoping to go there. Not many people could go to the afterlife, but if they didn’t go to the afterlife, the Ka and Ba would stay in their tomb.
