but in Lower Egypt the people appear to have buried
their dead under their houses as well.
Cemeteries in the MA’ADI cultural sequence
(3400–3000 B.C.E.) contained human and animal graves.
Unborn infant remains were found in graves inside the
settlements. In the Badarian period (4500–4000 B.C.E.),
the graves were oval or rectangular, roofed, and contained
food offerings—the beginning of mortuary regalias. The
corpses of this period were covered with hides or reed
mats, and some were positioned ritually and dusted with
sacred powders. Rectangular stone palettes, used as part
of the first grave offerings, were placed alongside the bod-
ies, accompanied by ivory and stone objects introduced
in the Badarian necropolis areas. In the Naqada II sites
(3500–3000 B.C.E.) there is evidence of definite mortuary
cults, as funerary pottery is evident. The graves were
linked with wooden planks in some instances, plastered
and painted, with niches designed to hold the ritual offer-
ings provided at burials.
The corpses of the Predynastic Periods were nor-
mally placed in the graves on their left sides, in a fetal or
sitting position. The religious texts of later eras contin-
ued to extort the dead to rise from their left sides and to
turn to the right to receive offerings. The graves were also
dug with reference to the Nile, so that the body faced the
West, or AMENTI, the western paradise of OSIRIS.
By the time Egypt was unified in c. 3000 B.C.E., the
people viewed the tomb as the instrument by which
death could be overcome, not as a mere shelter for cast-
off mortal remains. The grave thus became a place of
transfiguration. The A’AKH, the transfigured spiritual
being, emerged from the corpse as a result of religious
ceremonies. The A’akh, the deceased, soared into the
heavens as circumpolar stars, with the goddess NUT. As
the PYRAMID TEXTS declared later: “Spirit to the sky,
corpse into the earth.” All of the dead were incorporated
into cosmic realms, and the tombs were no longer shal-
low graves but the “houses of eternity.”
The first dynasties of Egypt became sophisticated
about death and the rituals of preparation. The need for a
receptacle for the KA,the astral being that accompanied
the mortal body throughout life, led the Egyptians to
elaborate on burial processes and rituals. They began to
speak of death as “going to one’s ka.” The dead were
“those who have gone to their kas.” Through the interces-
sion and guidance of these astral beings, the dead were
believed to change from weak mortals into unique
immortal spiritual beings, exchanging life on earth for
the perfect existence in paradise.
The cult of Osiris also began to exert influence on
the mortuary rituals and introduced the ideals of contem-
plating death as a “gateway into eternity.” This deity, hav-
ing assumed the cultic powers and rituals of older gods of
the necropolis, or cemetery sites, offered human beings to
prospects of salvation, resurrection, and eternal bliss.
Osiris would remain popular throughout Egypt’s history.
His veneration added moral impetus to the daily lives of
the people, common or noble, because he demanded, as
did RÉand the other deities, conformity to the will of the
gods, a mirroring of cosmic order, and the practice of
MA’AT,a spirit of quietude and cooperation throughout
life. Osiris also served as the god of the dead, thus linking
the living to those who had gone before them.
The impact of such philosophical and religious aspi-
rations was great and lasting. The shallow graves, dug
under the houses or in the fringe areas of the desert, were
abandoned as a result of the new spiritual approach, and
MASTABAS, the tombs made out of dried brick, were
devised to provide not only a burial chamber but a place
for offerings and rituals. Mastabas thus offered not only a
safe receptacle for the corpse but served as abodes for the
ka,and the ba,which accompanied it through eternity.
The necropolis sites of the Early Dynastic Period
(2920–2575 B.C.E.) were filled with mastabas that had
upper, ground-level chambers, shafts, and hidden burial
rooms. The mortuary ritual began to evolve at the same
time, and offerings were provided and gifts laid in front
of the deceased each day, especially when the corpse was
of royal status.
The desert graves had provided a natural process for
the preservation of the dead, something that the mastabas
altered drastically. Corpses placed away from the drying
sands, those stored in artificial graves, were exposed to
the decaying processes of death. The commoners and the
poor, however, conducted their burials in the traditional
manner on the fringes of the desert and avoided such
damage. The priests of the various religious cults provid-
ing funerary services and rituals discovered the damage
that was being done to the corpses and instituted cus-
toms and processes to alter the decay, solely because the
ka and the BA could not be deprived of the mortal
remains if the deceased was to prosper in the afterlife.
RESERVE HEADS(stone likenesses of the deceased) were
placed just outside the tombs so that the spiritual entities
of the deceased could recognize their own graves and
return safely, and so that a head of the corpse would be
available if the real one was damaged or stolen.
The elaborate mastabas erected in SAQQARAand in
other necropolis sites and the cult of Osiris, the Lord of
the Westerners, brought about new methods of preserva-
tion, and the priests began the long mortuary rituals to
safeguard the precious remains. In the early stages the
bodies were wrapped tightly in resin-soaked linen strips,
which resulted only in the formation of a hardened shell
in which the corpses eventually decayed. Such experi-
ments continued throughout the Early Dynastic Period, a
time in which the various advances in government, reli-
gion, and society were also taking place. Funerary stelae
were also introduced at this time. The tombs of the rulers
and queens were sometimes surrounded by the graves of
servants as well, as courtiers may have been slain to
accompany them into eternity. Such burials took place in252 mortuary rituals