Burial Goods (BlogPost #8)

The ancient Egyptians believed that burial customs were necessary to have immortality after their death and these includes mummifying, magic spells, and burial goods which they think is needed for the afterlife. The purpose the the burial goods were to protect and sustain the afterlife of the dead. The types of burial goods changed throughout time but it usually consisted of bowls, combs and also food. The wealthier Egyptians would usually put furniture and jewelries which were a target of tomb robbers.


The article What Egyptians Took to the Afterlife by Jimmy Dunn from touregypt.net gives more information about the burial goods of ancient Egyptians.

The Egyptians thought that the dead could take considerable items with them that is why there were burial goods. It was said that the king or officials who will be buried in the Valley of the Kings would began stocking their tombs long before their death. There were a lot of funerary items included in the coffin of the dead like the face mask, a sculpture of the king's face, so he could be recognized by the deities when his dead. There were also amulets found on a king's neck, either a heart amulet or a vulture amulet, to protect the king from threats.

Royal tombs contained ritualistic objects like Tutankhamun's tomb. There were life size ka-statues that guarded the sealed entrance to the burial chamber. There were also statues of the king and twenty eight statues of the the deities. For Sethos, his tomb has 700 1,000 shabti figures which were believed to be magical fieldworkers for the afterlife. The early pyramid builders buried full size boats but at the Valley of Kings there were only model figures. The royal boats were a symbol for the transportation of the king to the afterlife.

Ancient Egyptians believed that they could bring their wealth to the afterlife. This rituals and their culture influenced a lot to the religions we have now and our modern society. They are the first to make use of science and they were the first to make a bread rise with the use of yeast.  The alphabet was influenced by the Egyptian hieroglyphs and they figured out the 360 day calendar due to their religious festivals and feasts. I have the article How Ancient Egypt Influenced The Modern World by Franz L. Kessler  from authorden.com to give more information.

When people talk about what influenced their culture, they often think of Greece, Rome or Judaism but the three were inspired by the ancient world of Egypt. The Egyptians influenced us through architecture because of the pyramids and even though we have modern materials for construction the pyramids still remain as one of the strongest building around the world. Art deco was also influenced by them, treasures were found inside the tombs of the kings which influenced the art deco during the twenties and thirties. Astrology is based on the Egyptians observation, they used the pattern in the sky and the series of events that happened on earth. The Egyptians also influenced a lot to medicine, their physicians were also priests so they treat patients base on their religious belief.

Oracles (Blogpost #7)

An oracle is a priest who acts as a medium through a god that will give an advice to the person in need of guidance. It is also defined as a shrine to consult or ask a god. Egyptians used oracles to ask the gods for guidance just like the fortune tellers now, they use tarot cards or crystal balls to predict the future, and priests who guide people by the words of the Lord but they do not really get to talk to God. People of different economic statuses in ancient Egypt asked of the oracles and even the king, they used the oracle for personal and on royal decisions.

Egyptians were a big influence on relying on fortune tellers to do your decisions because even the pharaohs relied on oracles to make small and big decisions, and this is included in the article The Oracle in Ancient Egypt by Marie Parsons from touregypt.net

It was also said that the oracles were used so the the thieves would confess just by a simple answer of yes or no by the god. The oracle is not defined strictly as a prophecy or to tell the future because their gods do not know everything. Hence, an oracle is more practical than prophecy because it is a request to a deity to answer a question through it's statue. It was said that it is more effective if the question could be answerable by yes or no but questions that starts like who or what could also be asked. The oracle is also used by the farmers to ask on what is proper to plant on a particular season. During the third intermediate period, their was this decree that a deity passed through an oracle which was worn around the necks by the Egyptians with small cylinder. It guarantees protection against every imaginable evil on anyone who wears it.

As evidence, there were a lot of written questions that was found on the statues of the gods. An example of a found text is this, "Plea of the servant Teshnufe (son of) Mare, who says before his master Sobek, lord of Pay, great god, and Isis, perfect of throne. If my soundest course is to plow the bank of the lake this year, year 33, and I should now sow, let this slip be brought out to me."

Several kings were treated like gods even before they died. Amenhotep I was continued to be worshiped
even after he died, people would send him prayers and his oracle was often consulted. Oracles would go on public appearances with the god in a statue form, the end of the public appearance would signal people that the oracular session is over. During the public appearance the statue is strictly protected and carefully handled. Lastly, it was said that not all Egyptians believed the oracles at first because their was this thief who tried to prove that he is innocent through three oracles but ended as guilty which he has to admit.

While I was reading the article a question was wandering on my mind that why some people sometimes would follow others opinions on their decisions. People want to know if their dreams would come true, they want to have a positive clue to have faith on what they want to achieve but not everything is positive. Some fortune tellers would give you negative clues on your future which people hate because their main purpose of wanting to read their future is to get something good from it. Instead of deciding on what you want some rely on fortune telling, this is because fortune tellers are good psychologists that can make you believe in everything they say. To answer the question, I have the article The Logic Cube by Matthew Shanahan from psychologytoday.com.

People get stressed when they are engaged on making a good decision so we sometimes rely on external sources.  There are good external sources like parents, a spouse and a boss but some are dubious which are from a stranger, relying on a groups opinion or even the magic 8 ball. Magic 8 ball is a toy designed to give answers in an agreeing manner, negative or not-committal by a random choice. It was said that the people who use this are seeking solutions on decision making by using a random answer in order to move forward.

These stressful situations can cause a person to have different stress levels. The person under stress should be able to have the resources in order to handle the situation, as a result, three dimensions were classified as relevant and these are the objective assessment of resources, the subjective perception of resources and the projective value of success. In the objective dimension, the goal is to rate what is attainable and unattainable, this can be rated by external resources such as peers and family, proven situation factors and or simple objective resource. Subjective dimensions defines the person to believe if he or she has sufficient or insufficient resources, this can be brought by past experiences, knowledge, history and feelings. Lastly, the projective dimension, it indicates that the present action would lead to telling what could be the result of the action on your future.

In making decisions, you should not only rely on only one external source. Ask yourself if the decision could be really done or not. You should also know what will you get yourself in making this decision because if you rely on an external source the decision could only be good for themselves and would reflect bad on you. I think it is important to measure the risks on your decision, if the decision could change a lot of things from you or if the decision is made for you. The most important is that the decision would result to a good change and it should not only focus on yourself but around you.

Egyptian Deities (Blogpost #6)

A god is described as a supernatural being and the principal object of faith that is being worshiped by people.  There are three different concepts on how people see a God and these are theism, deism and pantheism. In Theism, God is realistic on human thought, God created everything, God is eternal and God can help humans through prayers. Deism believes that God created the universe but is not answer prayers or is not aware of humanity. In Pantheism, God is the universe or God is the universe itself. Even though there are three concepts of a God there are many who have developed arguments against the existence of God.

Egyptian Deities are gods and goddesses worshiped by the ancient Egyptians. Deities represent their religion and natural forces, the Egyptians supported them through offerings and rituals to continue the function of these deities. Their gods were believed to exist throughout the world and are capable of influencing natural events and human lives. Egyptians would pray to them for help and do rituals or call upon them for advice. A list of major gods and goddesses is included in the article Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by N.S Gill from ancienthistory.about.com.

Gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt looked partly like humans and some deities had animal features like a cat or a lion. An example is Anubis, the god has a head of a jackal and his task is to weigh the heart of the soul against a light feather.

 Another is Bast or Bastet, the god of cats who is described to have a feminine body with a head of a cat.

Next is Bes, who has an appearance of a dwarf sticking out his tongue and was a protector god of childbirth and fertility. He was a guardian against snaked and misfortunes. 


Geb or Keb, the god of earth, laid the egg from which the sun was hatched and was known as the Great Crackler because the goose was Geb's sacred animal. His laughter was believed to cause the earthquakes and he was often shown witnessing the heart during the judgement.

Hathor was known as the music and cow-goddess, she has horns of a cow and a sun disk.

Neith was drawn like a weaver and she is a weapon-bearing war goddess. She wears a red crown and a mortuary god connected to the woven bandages of the mummy.

Isis, wife of Osiris, the goddess of the dead and magic who is associated with life, the winds, heavens, beer and abundance.

There were a lot of gods that were not mentioned just like the god of destruction, Sekhmet, who has a head of a lion. Another is Nut the god of sky and Seth, god of the desert, who has an animal head with long curved snout.

Gods complete the belief of every religion, they serve as the supernatural being or the highest that created the start of something from a religion. Some believes in God because they assume that he created everything we see and feel. The article Why do we believe in God? by Satoshi Kanazawa from psychologytoday.com tells further why some believe in god.

It was said that every human practice some type of religion that is why they believe in God. Religion is part of the human nature and humans are designed to be religious. Natural forces like the wind can cause a human to imagine that something that is not seen could exist. Like when an apple accidentally fell from a tree so a human would assume this was done by a supernatural being or maybe by the force of gravity. This could be called as a false-negative error or a false-positive error and people get this not to be sure but to make them think that even though it is false it could be positive. Humans have the tendency to commit false-positive error rather than false-negative error and this is where the supernatural belief came from. It was also said that being paranoid because of this unexplained happenings has a bigger percentage that this the cause why we believe in supernatural beings rather than religion.

Key to Afterlife (Blogpost #5)

The Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts are religious documents that were used to help the spirit of the person to be preserved for the afterlife. Before, the funerary texts only appeared inside the king's tomb during the Old Kingdom but at the end of the period it appeared in the tombs of the wives of the royals. Funerary spells were also seen on coffins and for the first intermediate period some non-royal Egyptians could afford the coffin with spells so the pharaoh had no longer exclusive rights for the afterlife.  Pyramid texts was only reserved for the pharaohs and the privileged so there is the Book of the Dead.


The Book of the Dead consists of numerous spells with the same purpose as the funerary texts. In every coffin of a deceased their is a Book of the Dead  and not all were the same because it was believed that some would only write what they think would be helpful to the spirit. Almost every Book of the Dead are different or unique that includes different spells . The Book of the Dead gives a very helpful information on the Egyptians beliefs of life, death and afterlife. The items to make this book were very expensive and it was required that the dead's relatives would complete the spells.

For further information I have the article The Pyramid Texts: Guide to the Afterlife by Joshua J. Mark from ancient.eu.com

The Pyramid Texts are known as the oldest religious texts in the world. It is designed with spells that will free the soul of the pharaoh. It provided a reference to the god Osiris and the judgement on the afterlife. Their is this utterances which are inscriptions that were meant to be spoken and it gives the pharaoh the journey to the sky. Each chapter in the book is corresponded with a utterance that is to spoken aloud to the soul. It is said that the priests were believed that they created this book which has the purpose of leading the soul to the afterlife safely.




"A ramp to the sky is built for him that he may go up to the sky thereon. He goeth up upon the smoke of the great exhalation. He flieth as a bird and he settleth as a beetle on an empty seat on the ship of Ra... He roweth in the sky in thy ship, O Ra! And he cometh to the land in thy ship, O Ra!"



This was stated in the Pyramid Texts and this suggests that they believed that the soul could fly, walk, run or even row to the Field of Reeds. The ship of Ra. which is believed to be connected to the sun and the texts, was described as a transportation of the soul to the underworld then through the heavens then finally to the Field of Reeds where the soul would enjoy an eternal life.

Death separates us from touching the loved one but it does not really separates us from the emotions. Death forces people to accept and realize that the person who died can no longer come back so instead of mourning we honor them. Honoring the dead is a tradition that gives us a chance to value again the person who died just like All Soul's Day and All Saint's Day here in the Philippines. There are a lot of ways to honor the dead and the newest is included in the article Modern Mourning: New Ways We Honor Our Dead by Glenn McDonald from new.discovery.com.

It was said that this new ways of honoring the dead is caused by the fast disappearance of rituals in our secularized society. Another reason is that some people who do not have religions find their own ways to honor or mourn for them. As a result, some started on social networking sites such as Facebook where they would assemble photos, videos or written tributes for a memorial that can be seen by a lot of people around the world. Even funeral services now offer an online memorial and it was said that over one million pages on Facebook are a tribute to dead people.  Lastly, a recent pay-it-forward movement was made because of the death of Alyssa J. O'Neill. The family bought 40 of Alyssa's favorite beverage at Starbucks which is the pumpkin spice latte. They gave all of the lattes with the hashtag AJO written on the cup and it was discovered that the movement made it through a lot of places like Sri Lanka where they received pictures of coffee cups with #AJO written on it.

Many of us have dreamed to be on heaven and there were also times when we had experienced those dry times where we lost our heaven and all we have is hell. I believe that prayers on funerals are an equivalent of the utterances in the Pyramid Texts. Some believe that to have obedience, persistence and persevering prayer would lead them to their heaven. I think that those are not enough because what really matters is that we should do things not only for ourselves. We should be open to others because all of us are not sure that all the prayers are effective and to do things that are right could be a better thing to do. We can have our own heaven here on Earth if all of us would agree to make it a better place.

The Pyramids (Blogpost #4)

When our loved ones die we should bury or give them a funeral to show respect. A reason for this is that the dead person needs to preserve his body for the afterlife. Another is that some religions believe that man came from soil and soil he shall return. We bury our dead because we want to protect the body and if we will not bury the dead their is a possibility that scavengers would eat them. Lastly, we should bury the dead because it can cause a lot of disease if it will be exposed that will cause more dead bodies.

Not all buries their dead because some cultures would dissolve or burn the bodies and scatter them to the winds or into the water but some keeps the ashes on a small jar. The tradition of burying the dead on boxes or coffins started from the Egyptians. The purpose of this is to protect the body and help it for the afterlife. The pyramids were built as a symbol of the Egyptian society but it serves as a burial chamber for the pharaohs. The pyramids are filled with religious symbols and hieroglyphs the tells the story of the dead body inside.

In the article The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt by David Down from answersingenesis.org states that there are about 100 pyramids and 17 of them are great pyramids.

The Pyramids were used to prove that the bible is not right because the pyramids were built before Noah's flood and it should be buried under lots of sediments. The first two dynasties of Egypt did not built pyramids for their pharaohs instead they buried them in chambers underneath mud-brick edifices called Mastabas. On the third dynasty, King Zoser had his mastaba made with rough blocks of stone then it was added six stages to make it the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. It is believed as to be the first pyramid made in Egypt.


Seneferu, the king of the fourth dynasty, is known as the greatest builder of pyramids. He built the first pyramid with the true pyramid shape at south of Saqqara but the outer stones collapsed leaving it only with a step-pyramid core. Seneferu built another pyramid called the Bent Pyramid near to Saqqara at Dashur. It is called the Bent Pyramid because the lower half of it has an angle of 54 degrees and its upper half is only 43 degrees.




Seneferu was not satisfied so he then built another one which is the Red Pyramid at Dashur.

Seneferu's son Khufu built the largest pyramid of all on the Giza Plateau. It is known as the Great Pyramid and it needed a lot of workforce to finish. The pyramid is made out of an estimated number of three million blocks and each of these blocks was said to be perfectly squared.

King Khafre and King Menkaure built their pyramids on the Giza Plateau. Khafre's pyramid is almost as high as Khufu's but has a steeper angle.

Menkaure's was only a quarter of the others and was said that it was not finished.

Amenemhet III built the last great pyramid of Egypt and the pharaoh is believed to be the foster father of Moses. The daughter of this pharaoh, Sobekneferu, was the last ruler of the dynasty. It was believed that she would always go to the river but not to take a bath but to pray to Nile fertility god, Hapi, for a baby. When she found the basket that contains Moses she thought it was an answer to her prayer. When Moses was 40 years old, he showed sympathy to the Israelite slaves by killing one of their oppressors.  Moses was sent to the distant land of Midian by the pharaoh and when Sobekneferu died the dynasty ended.

The pharaohs had a beautiful life and even their dead body receives honor and is being surrounded with a lot of expensive grave goods. Their bodies are kept on a good structured building that until now stands very strong. The main purpose of a cemetery is to bury the body and to protect it. Another is so it can be visited and to record the past just like the grave markers where the facts about the dead is stated.

Hapi (Nile God)

Pyramids is a tribute to the egyptians civilization by the Nile base on the article What were the Purposes of the Pyramids in Egypt? by Cody Hodge from humanities360.com

Pyramids were built as a symbol of Egyptian society and for the burial chambers of the pharaohs. The symbols painted on the walls inside the pyramid serves as a guide for the pharaoh on the afterlife and along his journey he would be questioned and this symbols would help him to answer. The shape and location of the pyramids are based on their religion. They believed that the Earth was created from a primordial mount so they used the pyramids to represent it. Another reason is to represent the descending rays of sunshine. The location of the pyramids is on west bank of the Nile river because this is where the sun sets and they believed that this is where the kingdom of the dead is located.

DEAD BODY (BlogPost #3)

We cannot choose on how we are going to die but we can decide on how we want our body to look on our burial. I think it is more expensive to die than to live because some need medications  before they die and some wants their funeral ceremonies to be the most memorable. I want to know what do we get if our bodies will be preserved like the Egyptian's mummification or the modern Cryonics. Cryonics reminds me of the movie "Vanilla Sky", the movie is starred by Tom Cruise where his character's body was frozen on the exact time of his death. The end part of the movie explained that he signed a contract of a program called Life Extension where his body will be frozen until they find a cure and while the body is frozen they place the body on a lucid dream state. I could imagine our surroundings if this movie is true, the population will reach it's highest, supplies of things we need will lessen because no one gets to die and they just need to rest, and the environment will be destroyed because some environmental cycles were broken.

Ancient Egyptians have many secrets and even the process of mummification was kept as a secret by the embalmers but some tried to reveal it just like what is included in the article Ancient Egyptian Mummification Practices Revisited by New Study by Jennie Cohen from history.com.

Herodotus revealed that there are three levels for different prices. The finest mummification process is where embalmers would remove the brain through the nose then make a little slit to remove the abdomen. If the family could not afford it their is a lower fee where the embalmers use cedar oil to liquefy some particular organs. If the family of the dead could not really afford, the cheapest is where the embalmers flush water through the body and leave it in natron for 70 days. Diodorus Siculus also described the process the same but he reported that the heart was left in place unlike other organs like the brain. The study of Herodotus and Siculus were done a long time ago so a new study by Andrew Wade revealed that one-fifth of the corpses that he studied still had brains and a quarter still had hearts. It was also stated that some hearts were kept in place to distinguish the nobles from the commoners so the elite would maintain a more favorable afterlife.

I think the preparations for our burials should not be too expensive because we do not need our body for the afterlife but our soul is needed. I respect the belief of the ancient Egyptians but distinguishing rich from the poor is not right because I believe that in afterlife we are all equal. It is our or our family's choice on what we want to do with our body when we die. When I die I would offer my organs that is still usable to people who would need it but I also want to freeze my body to preserve it and if possible, I want to magically live again just like in the movies.

The article The Modern Mummification Cryonics: Search for Immortality Continues by Alim Birkiye from fountainmagazine.com describes the process of Cryonics.

Mummification and Cryonics has the same purpose to preserve the dead but has different processes. Unlike mummification, Cryonics freezes the body to preserve and then cure it to bring it back to life. Although it sounds like impossible, a professor named James Bedford decided to freeze his body in 1967. Many people decided to also freeze there dead bodies but some stopped due to financial reasons. On 1994, the number of frozen bodies had risen and now a lot has signed up for this. The process begins if the body did not loose many cells, the first step is to hook a machine to body that provides oxygen to the still living tissues and at the same time the blood is drained then some chemicals are circulated so the body will not be damaged by the low temperature. No body has been proven revived but it is said that the skin, some tissues, red and white blood cells, the bone marrow, human embryos and the sperm survived the low temperature.

Although it was said in the article that Cryonics can be cheap I would still look at it as very expensive. The process could take a lot of time and who would pay if it took hundreds of years. To revive the dead that was frozen for a long time sounds impossible but with out modern technology we cannot really say if it is impossible. The first person that will be revived by Cryonics will be lucky and at the same time miserable because if you wake up suddenly after a long time then not one of your family is still alive or you got left behind by everything because a lot changes everyday then it is like having an amnesia. The possibility of immortality was also stated in the article so I assumed that it does not matter the age of the person who will be frozen and people could live for hundreds of years but still aging after they have been frozen. In contrast, I think that immortality is impossible but the possibility of people to live hundreds or even thousands of years could be true and their has to be a limit to that.

RITUALS FOR THE DEAD (BlogPost #2)

                             Funerals are the worst ceremonies in everyone's life. We go there to mourn for someone that we lost and we have to respect purely the dead. A funeral could last for a week just like my grandfather's funeral, it lasted very long because there were a lot of guests and a lot of rituals. I think their was day of the funeral where they fed the whole neighborhood and they managed to fit all of them around their house. He's funeral followed the tradition in there province so all the rituals that were done was new to me. They were very strict, even my choice of the color of my clothes were needed to be changed but I respect their beliefs so I followed them all.The experience was extraordinary when I stayed there, a lot of things happened and everything was new to me.

                              Burials for the dead in ancient Egypt takes a lot of time and money. The article Egyptian Burial by Joshua J. Mark from ancient.eu.com explained this a lot.

                                 When a man dies all the women in his household would cover their faces with mud then they would wear a girdle. They would also beat their bared breasts and this will also be done if a woman dies then the men would do the ritual. After this ritual the body would be taken to be mummified.It was said that the most expensive procedures were the ones who were deceased because their body needs to be cleaned and some parts should be removed. Before the mummification is done the family needs to choose on what kind of coffin will they use for the dead and these coffins depend on what is the economic status of the family. Even if ceremony of the burial is expensive the poor could still have it because they believed all should be properly treated and if not the soul of the dead would haunt the living. The last ritual is the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony, it could be done while before placing the mummy in the tomb or during the funeral process. The priest will recite spells then he would use a ceremonial blade on the dead's mouth, arms and legs so the body could still move. When the tomb is sealed the priest will recite more spells and prayers so the dead could move on it's afterlife.

                                  

                               I never knew being dead could be so expensive. The preparation for the belief of afterlife needs a lot of work and rituals but still the dead is not sure if it would be granted an afterlife. I think this rituals were not only for the dead but also for the loved ones who were left. The ceremonies was a way of keeping them busy so they would not mourn a lot and can manage to move on. The ceremonies for the dead was a way to respect their existence before but how would they appreciate it if they are dead?

                                  

                               The article Why Is the Funeral Ritual Important? by Alan D. Wolfelt from griefwords.com gave six mourning needs for an individual who lost someone.  

                                The first need is to acknowledge the reality of the dead where the left loved one should accept the death of a person so they are the ones who would make choices for the funeral of the dead. The second need is to move toward the pain of the loss, it says that it is okay to let out all your feelings during the funeral but you should be able to get it all out in order for you to move on or accept it. For the third need, the loved ones should be able to recall all the good memories of the dead so the mourning would lessen. The fourth is to develop a new self-identity because the one that left can no longer help or contribute to yourself so developing a new self-identity could mean that they have accepted the death. The fifth need is to search for a meaning why the person died. Lastly, the need to receive on going support from others. A funeral is the time to share your support to others, care and love should be shown so the left loved one would fell better.

                                I think the sixth reason is the most important because it shows that we are not alone. To face this kind of situation is very hard if you are alone. You will ask a lot of questions to yourself which will not help on accepting the death of someone. No one wants to loose anything so I think we should treasure our life.

 Al