Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life

by L. W. Yaggy; T. L. Haines

TOMBS.

Respect for the dead, and a considerate regard for the due performance of the rites of burial, have been distinctive features in man in all ages and countries. Among the Greeks and Romans great importance was attached to the burial of the dead, as, if a corpse remained unburied, it was believed that the spirit of the departed wandered for a hundred years on the hither side of the Styx. Hence it became a religious duty to scatter earth over any unburied body which any one might chance to meet. This was considered sufficient to appease the infernal gods. The earliest tomb was the tumulus or mound of earth, heaped over the dead. It is a form naturally suggested to man in the early stages of his development. There are two classes of primitive tombs, which are evidently of the highest antiquity. The hypergæan, or raised mounds, or tumuli, and hypogæan, which are subterranean or excavated. The tumulus may be considered as the most simple and the most ancient form of sepulture. Its adoption was universal among all primitive nations. Such was the memorial raised by the Greeks over the bodies of their heroes. These raised mounds are to be met with in all countries. The Etruscans improved upon this form by surrounding the base with a podium, or supporting wall of masonry, as at the Cocumella at Vulci, and in the Regulini-Galassi tomb. The Lydians adopted a similar improvement in the tomb of Alyattes, near Sardis. The pyramid, which is but a further development in stone of this form of sepulture, is not peculiar to Egypt alone, it has been adopted in several other countries. Examples of subterranean tombs are to be found in Egypt, Etruria, Greece. Those of Egypt and Etruria afford instances of extraordinary labor bestowed in excavating and constructing these subterranean abodes of the dead. The great reverence paid by the Egyptians to the bodies of their ancestors, and their careful preservation of them by embalmment, necessitated a great number and vast extent of tombs. The Egyptians called their earthly dwellings inns, because men stay there but a brief while; the tombs of the departed they called everlasting mansions, because the dead dwelt in them forever.

EGYPTIAN TOMB.[ToList]

The pyramids were tombs. These monuments were the last abode of the Kings of the early dynasties. They are to be met with in Lower Egypt alone. The Theban Kings and their subjects erected no pyramids, and none of their tombs are structural. In Upper Egypt numerous excavations from the living rock in the mountains of the Thebaid received their mortal remains. Nothing can exceed the magnificence and care with which these tombs of the Kings were excavated and decorated. It appears to have been the custom with their Kings, so soon as they ascended the throne, to begin preparing their final resting place. The excavation seems to have gone on uninterruptedly, year by year, the painting and adornment being finished as it progressed, till the hand of death ended the King's reign, and simultaneously the works of his tomb. The tomb thus became an index of the length of a King's reign as well as of his magnificence. Their entrance, carefully closed, was frequently indicated by a facade cut on the side of the hill. A number of passages, sometimes intersected by deep wells and large halls, finally led, frequently by concealed entrances, to the large chamber where was the sarcophagus, generally of granite, basalt, or alabaster. The sides of the entire excavation, as well as the roof, were covered with paintings, colored sculptures, and hieroglyphic inscriptions in which the name of the deceased King was frequently repeated. We generally find represented in them the funeral ceremonies, the procession, the visit of the soul of the deceased to the principal divinities, its offerings to each of them, lastly, its presentation by the god who protected it to the supreme god of the Amenti, the under-world or Hades. The splendor of these works, and the richness and variety of their ornamentation, exceed all conception; the figures, though in great number, are sometimes of colossal size; frequently scenes of civil life are mingled with funeral representations; the labors of agriculture, domestic occupations, musicians, dances, and furniture of wonderful richness and elegance, are also figured on them; on the ceiling are generally astronomical or astrological subjects. Several tombs of the Kings of the eighteenth dynasty and subsequent dynasties have been found in the valley of Biban-el-Molouk on the western side of the plain of Thebes. One of the most splendid of these is that opened by Belzoni, and now known as that of Osirei Menepthah, of the nineteenth dynasty. A sloping passage leads to a chamber which has been called "The Hall of Beauty."

Forcing his way farther on, Belzoni found as a termination to a series of chambers a large vaulted hall which contained the sarcophagus which held the body of the monarch, now in Sir John Soane's Museum. The entire extent of this succession of chambers and passages is hollowed to a length of 320 feet into the heart of the rock, and they are profusely covered with the paintings and hieroglyphics usually found in those sepulchral chambers. The tombs of the other Kings, Remeses III. and Remeses Miamun, exhibit similar series of passages and chambers, covered with paintings and sculptures, in endless variety, some representing the deepest mysteries of the Egyptian religion; but, as Mr. Fergusson says, like all the tombs, they depend for their magnificence more on the paintings that adorn the walls than on anything which can strictly be called architecture. One of the tombs at Biban-el Molouk is 862 feet in length without reckoning the lateral chambers; the total area of excavation is 23,809, occupying an acre and a quarter of space for one chamber.

Private individuals were buried according to their rank and fortune. Their tombs, also excavated from the living rock, consisted of one or of several chambers ornamented with paintings and sculptures; the last contained the sarcophagus and the mummy. According to Sir G. Wilkinson, the tombs were the property of the priests, and a sufficient number being always kept ready, the purchase was made at the shortest notice, nothing being requisite to complete even the sculptures or inscriptions but the insertion of the deceased's name and a few statements respecting his family and profession. The numerous subjects representing agricultural scenes, the trades of the people, in short, the various occupations of the Egyptians, varying only in their details and the mode of their execution, were figured in these tombs, and were intended as a short epitome of human life, which suited equally every future occupant. The tombs at Beni Hassan are even of an earlier date than those of Thebes. Among these the tomb of a monarch or provincial governor is of the age of Osirtasen I. The walls of this tomb are covered with a series of representations, setting forth the ordinary occupations and daily avocations of the deceased, thus illustrating the manners and customs of the Egyptians of that age. These representations are a sort of epitome of life, or the career of man, previous to his admission to the mansions of the dead. They were therefore intended to show that the deceased had carefully and duly fulfilled and performed all the duties and avocations which his situation in life and the reverence due to the gods required. In the cemeteries of Gizeh and Sakkara are tombs of the time of Nephercheres, sixth King of the second dynasty, probably the most ancient in Egypt. Around the great pyramid are numerous tombs of different periods; among them are the tombs of the princes, and other members of the family or time of Khufu. One of the most interesting is that known as Campbell's tomb, of the supposed date of about 660 B.C. It contained a tomb built up in its center, covered by three stones as struts, over which was a semicircular arch of brick. Near it, also, are several tombs of private individuals, who were mostly priests of Memphis. Many of these have false entrances, and several have pits with their mouths at the top of the tomb. The walls are covered with the usual paintings representing the ordinary occupations of the deceased.

Mummies.—The origin of the process of embalming has been variously accounted for. The real origin appears to be this: it was a part of the religious belief of the Egyptians that, as a reward of a well-spent and virtuous life, their bodies after death should exist and remain undecayed forever in their tombs, for we find in the "Book of the Dead" the following inscription placed over the spirits who have found favor in the eyes of the Great God: "The bodies which they have forsaken shall sleep forever in their sepulchres, while they rejoice in the presence of God most high." This inscription evidently shows a belief in a separate eternity for soul and body; of an eternal existence of the body in the tomb, and of the soul in the presence of God. The soul was supposed to exist as long as the body existed. Hence the necessity of embalming the body as a means to insure its eternal existence. Some have considered that the want of ground for cemeteries, and also the excavations made in the mountains for the extraction of materials employed in the immense buildings of Egypt, compelled them to have recourse to the expedient of mummification. Others consider the custom arose rather from a sanitary regulation for the benefit of the living. According to Mr. Gliddon, mummification preceded, in all probability, the building of the pyramids and tombs, because vestiges of mummies have been found in the oldest of these, and, in fact, the first mummies were buried in the sand before the Egyptians possessed the necessary tools for excavating sepulchres in the rock. The earliest mode of mummification was extremely simple; the bodies were prepared with natron, or dried in ovens, and wrapped in woolen cloth. At a later period every provincial temple was provided with an establishment for the purpose of mummification. The bodies were delivered to the priests to be embalmed, and after seventy days restored to their friends, to be carried to the place of deposit. The mode of embalming depended on the rank and position of the deceased. There were three modes of embalming; the first is said to have cost a talent of silver (about $1,250); the second, 22 minæ ($300); the third was extremely cheap. The process is thus described by Herodotus;—"In Egypt certain persons are appointed by law to exercise this art as their peculiar business, and when a dead body is brought them they produce patterns of mummies in wood, imitated in painting. In preparing the body according to the most expensive mode, they commence by extracting the brain from the nostrils by a curved hook, partly cleansing the head by these means, and partly by pouring in certain drugs; then making an incision in the side with a sharp Ethiopian stone (black flint), they draw out the intestines through the aperture. Having cleansed and washed them with palm wine, they cover them with pounded aromatics, and afterwards filling the cavity with powder of pure myrrh, cassia, and other fragrant substances, frankincense excepted, they sew it up again. This being done, they salt the body, keeping it in natron during seventy days, to which period they are strictly confined. When the seventy days are over, they wash the body, and wrap it up entirely in bands of fine linen smeared on the inner side with gum. The relatives then take away the body, and have a wooden case made in the form of a man, in which they deposit it; and when fastened up they keep it in a room in their house, placing it upright against the wall. (This style of mummy was supposed to represent the deceased in the form of Osiris.) This is the most costly mode of embalming.