Ancient EgyptMortuary Practices and Beliefs

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

The antechamber of Tutankhamun's Tomb (18th 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 (12th 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 (30th Dyn); Manchester MuseumThe 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 (19th 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 NephthysBritish 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 SaqqaraTomb 3357 (1st 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 (4th Dyn)

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

Teti’s pyramid at Saqqara (6th Dyn)

Plan of Saqqara

Floor plan of the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara (5th Dyn)

1: Portico with two pillars2: First serdab, visible through two narrow windows from the portico and from the courtyard3: Pillared courtyard; a: false door of Demedj, Ti’s son4: First corridor; b: false door of Nefer-Hetep-es (Neferhetepes), Ti’s wife, aligned with her tomb shaft (no. 9)5: Second corridor6: Storeroom7: 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 chapel9: Tomb shaft for Nefer-Hetep-es (Neferhetepes), Ti’s wifeThe red outline outlines Ti’s burial chamber below the mastaba.A: descent from the courtyardB: sloping corridorC: burial chamber withD: 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 (6th Dyn)

Tombs at Qubbet el-Hawa (6th Dyn)

Palaeolithic 700,000-7000 BCE

Saharan Neolithic 8800-4700Early 8800-6800Middle 6600-5100Late 5100-4700

Predynastic 5300-3000 Lower Egypt

Neolithic 5300-4000Maadi 4000-3200

Upper EgyptBadarian 4400-4000Naqada I 4000-3500 (Amratian)Naqada II 3500-3200 (Gerzean)Naqada III 3200-3000 (Dynasty 0)

1ST Persian Period (27th-30th) 525-4042d Persian Period 343-332Ptolemaic Period 332-30

Macedonian332-310Ptolemaic 305-30

Roman 30 BCE-642 CE