great mounds, some as much as 100 feet wide and 45 feet
high, showed the power and prestige of the rulers.
During the fourth and fi ft h centuries b.c.e. in Axum, a
city and kingdom in highland Ethiopia, gravesites of rulers
were marked with some of the world’s tallest obelisks, mono-
lithic pillars up to 100 feet high. During this time the practice
of erecting obelisks and granite tombs for leaders held sway
in numerous settlements extending from the Ethiopian high-
lands to the Red Sea coast.
Other parts of Africa have thus far shown less evidence of
great tombs for the deceased in antiquity. One reason may be
that social stratifi cation and kingship developed later in these
other areas, and consequently there was less focus on building
costly structures to provide special honors for elites. Elabo-
rate monuments and precious grave goods are rarely associ-
ated with the ordinary members of society. Rather, they are
associated with nobility, kingship, and accumulated wealth.
However, new discoveries continue to be made in Africa. For
example, archaeologists have recently documented dramatic
burial sites in Niger. Located primarily in the northern part
of the country, these fi nds include stone chambers beneath
massive conical mounds, some of them standing more than
45 feet tall.
Cremation is another possible way of dealing with the
dead, and there is early evidence of this practice in Africa. For
example, along the Rift Valley in western Kenya the famous
archaeologists Mary and Louis Leakey excavated a Late Stone
Age cave site known as the Njoro River Cave that dates to
around 1200 b.c.e. Th ere they found a number of cremated
remains as well as funeral off erings that had also been par-
tially burned, including elaborately decorated wooden ves-
sels, baskets, beads, shells, and semiprecious stones that were
probably strung together and worn as jewelry. Th e Njoro fi nd
is exceptional, however; for reasons that are unclear and that
probably vary greatly from one culture to another, cremation
appears never to have been very common in Africa.
Much remains to be discovered about the death and
burial practices of prehistoric Africa, especially among non-
elite levels of society. From what is known from more recent
practices and religious beliefs, however, it is very unlikely
that the dead of typical families in antiquity were disposed of
without ceremony or community involvement. Th roughout
Africa the burial of the dead is a community matter, and there
is great concern with honoring and maintaining a proper re-
lationship with the spirit of one’s ancestors.
EGYPT
BY KELLY-ANNE DIAMOND REED
Much of our information about the death and burial customs
of the ancient Egyptians comes from surviving illustrations
of their tomb scenes. No tomb shows all the episodes of a
complete burial, but from an assortment of them we can re-
construct the typical funeral. Th e elaborateness of individual
ceremonies and the quantity and richness of the tomb fur-
nishings of course varied with the wealth of the deceased’s
family.
Upon the death of an ancient Egyptian the body was
taken from the home and transported to the tent of purifi ca-
tion (ibw) for a ritual cleansing and then to the embalming
workshop (wabet) for mummifi cation. Bot h were probably lo-
cated in the cemetery, either near or attached to the tomb. Th e
purpose of the ibw was to purify the body before the rituals
that inducted the deceased into the world beyond. Everything
used in these ceremonies had to be ritually pure, and certain
ceremonies were done behind closed doors with only the ini-
tiated allowed to attend.
Before the invention of artifi cial mummifi cation, the an-
cient Egyptians buried their dead in the ground. Egypt’s hot
dry climate evaporated the moisture in the body and left it
dry. In the Predynastic Period (ca. 5000–3100 b.c.e.) the body
was wrapped in an animal skin or linen and placed in a shal-
low grave. By the end of the Early Dynastic Period (ca. 2920–
2575 b.c.e.) royal graves were deeper and lined with materials
such as sun-dried mud bricks or wood. Oft en there was also
a superstructure. Th e coffi n gave further protection. All of
these protective measures prevented the body from drying
and eventually led to a new method of preservation, owing to
the need for an eternal body according to Egyptian religious
beliefs. Th us mummifi cation was invented, aimed at preserv-
ing the body in a dry condition mainly by using a chemical
salt known as natron. Th e details of the mummifi cation pro-
cess varied over time. By the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070
b.c.e.) the procedure took 70 days. Th e ritual of preservation
was later interpreted as imitation of the god Osiris, who died
and came back to life.
From the embalming workshop the body embarked on
a ritualistic voyage or pilgrimage. In the Old Kingdom (ca.
2575–2134 b.c.e.) the ceremonial voyage went to cult centers
in the Nile Delta, but in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2040–1640
b.c.e.) and New Kingdom the destination was Abydos, the
most sacred place of the Osiris cult, which had become popu-
lar near the end of the Old Kingdom and infl uenced the funer-
ary rituals. Once the cortege arrived on the west bank of the
Nile (west being associated by the Egyptians with death), the
body was hauled to the tomb on a sledge pulled by either men
or oxen. Th e sledge also carried the so-called canopic chest
containing the four canopic jars, which held the deceased’s
liver, stomach, lungs, and intestines.
Th e funeral procession consisted of relatives and other
mourners, servants who carried the burial goods, and priests.
Sometimes two women impersonated the goddesses Isis and
Nephthys, who mourned their brother Osiris in the myth.
In the older tradition the mww-dancers, who may have rep-
resented the ancestors of the ruler (there are many theories
about the identity of the mww-dancers, would have met the
procession at the cemetery. Boxes, baskets, furniture, jewelry,
sandals, writing boards, and other items were buried with the
deceased. Additional rituals took place before the body was
deposited into the tomb. A special lector priest read funerarydeath and burial practices: Egypt 313