Painting
A big part of my art is finding ways to express what I want to, but I also love looking into peoples cultures and finding out about their arts and beliefs as I find this really interesting. One that I have really loved is looking into is the Egyptian beliefs and the stories of their gods.
I have looked in to this a lot in the past and i find their belief of the after life interesting as a lot of people believe there is nothing. I am not sure what I believe, so I do like to get very involved in others thoughts as they do help me to be more open minded.
This means my art could take two different views, as I could do a persons life through time leading to nothing and then I could do a life leading to the after life.
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The Afterlife…..
For me to fully understand the after life I feel I need to look into the reason or beginning of the belief. For this I’m going to look deeper into the first tomb we found that shows us about what they did for the afterlife
Kha and Merit…..
Kha and merit were a husband (kha) and his wife (merit) who lives within a small village that was located between the desert and the river Nile in Egypt about 35,000 years ago. Their tomb was discovered and explored within 1906, They then moved everything within the tomb to a museum in Italy.
Within the tomb was all of their belongings from food to perfumes and more, this did also include their mummified bodies. This is the easiest form of preparing for the afterlife we have found (I think).
The belief of the afterlife was so strong that most of their life the people of this belief would make sure their hearts are not full of sin, as this would be detrimental for them in the journey through the under world.
What Happens within And Before The Afterlife…..
Egyptians loved life and they believed in life after death. For this they would have to lead good lives with no sin. They believed that the afterlife was like crossing the Nile and that living after death would be life their normal life, but only perfect. This is where they would become immortal.
To be prepared for the afterlife they would be mummified and put into a tomb. This tomb would be filled with all their belongings, for them to use within the afterlife. This could be from chairs to perfume to food and wine and a lot more.
Within the funeral all their belongings will be put into the tomb but there will also be a retiral called the “opening of the mouth” this is where a family member will use a tool to touch against the dead’s mouth. This tool is called a adze. (it was a special chisel)
Other parts of the retiral would include:
- A band playing music – to open the persons hearing.
- Dances – to open up the persons sight.
- Perfume and scents – presented to the persons noise to open their smell.
- The best food/wine – to open the persons soul.
This would then prepare them for the afterlife.
Their view on dead is a temporary thing before immortality. To be able to get to the afterlife and live within the perfect immortality, they would have to take a dangerous journey through the underworld. This would involved many different tasks that the god make but the most important one is the last test “the weighting of the heart”. This is where the god Osiris tests their heart for sin.
A heavy heart is a sign of sin and that their where bad within their life, a light heart means they lead a good life. If you are found to have a heavy heart this would lead for your heart to be through to a beast.
To help a person through this journey there was a book that was made called “book of the dead” this book was full of magical spells to help someone make it to the afterlife. this book was made on papyrus
References for information…..
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2016/01-02/egypt-book-of-the-dead/
http://www.deirelmedina.com/lenka/TurinKha.html
http://www.profmcginty.co.uk/egyptadze.htm