Egyptian Religion and Immortality Essay - 1395 Words

The most noticing aspect of Egyptian religion is its obsession with immortality and the belief of life after death. This sculpture can show you this on how mummification gave upbringing to complex arts in ancient Egypt. The sculpture is the Mummy Case of Paankhenamun. The artwork is currently viewed at The Art Institute of Chicago. The sculpture was from the third period, Dynasty 22, in ancient Egypt. However, the sculpture has many features to it that makes it so unique in ancient Egypt from any other time. Egyptians did not want to die. They saw no reason why life should not go on when they were dead. When the Egyptians thought about what happened when they died, they decided that there would be another life in store for them. A life†¦show more content†¦One may think that the process of mummifying one’s body took a couple of hours. Not even close, it took a total of 70 days to complete mummification. The process included prayers, magical chants, and mostly drying out the body. First the corpse was taken to the embalmers’ workshop. The workshop had special magic names, such as the â€Å"House of Vigor† (strength). This name helped to make sure that embalming gave the dead body back its strength. Once in the workshop, it was time to remove all the internal organs that might decay quickly. The first organ removed was the brain. The Egyptians believed that the brain was of little importance and it was thrown away when removed. The brain was extracted by poking a hole in the thin bone at the top of the nostrils, the ethmoid bone. A large bronze needle with a hooked or spiral end was used to perform this procedure. Next, a small slit was made in the side to remove the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines. The organs were dried out and put in special jars called â€Å"canonic jars.† The Egyptians thought that bad magic could be worked against you if an enemy got hold of any part of your body, even a single hair. So these internal organs would eventually be buried alongside the mummy for protection. The heart was the only organ to be left in place, believing it to be the center of a person’s being and intelligence. Next, the body had to be dried out. For 40 days it laid packed inShow MoreRelatedThe Mysteries Of Ancient Egypt1572 Words   |  7 Pagesattention of archeologists and ordinary people for many centuries. An enormous impact on the history of Egypt was religion, it shaped the everyday life of all the egyptians. They wanted an afterlife in Aaru, heaven. It was the ultimate goal. People s lives were rotating around religion, and everything that was tangent to it. The peculiarity of religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians developed because of the geographical location of the state. 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