Mutual Influences of Changes in Funerary Beliefs and Sarcophaguses Evolution in the Pharaohs’ Egypt

Abstract

The system of Egyptian funeral beliefs was one of the most developed among the nations of the ancient East. Apart from creating complex mythology and rituals, it created a collection of objects of material culture, which served as elements that completed said rituals. In this group both tombs and sarcophagi play the primary role and therefore they deserve special attention.

It is possible to determine a fixed group of objects that were included in the Egyptian funerary equipment. Human remains preserved by the mummification process, sarcophagi, scrolls and small everyday objects such as jewelry, ceramics, sculpture and furniture, should be mentioned among others. Apart from the form of the tomb, as the main chronological determinants of the burial should be considered shape and ornamentation of ocfiin in which mummy was deposited. That enables us to divide sarcophagi into two basic groups – box and anthropoid. Depending on the period when were created both their form and meaning vastly differs.

The article should be regarded as a short synthesis of a complex problem, which require further reasarch, although the issue was repeatedly brought up in professional literature. The matter was discussed interdisciplinary basing upon methods of history and archaeology. The article is an attempt to depict the changes in sarcophagi’s shape during Egypt history since the Predynastic Period until the reign of XXX^th Dynasty. It aims to present the transition in Egyptian eschatological beliefs in said period. The article discusses both the religious texts as well as foreign sources, including Herodotus.

The undertaken endeavour proves that the religion changes reflected on the decorations of sarcophagi and texts which were an inseparable part of such decoration. Simple shapes of early examples from the Predynastic Period evolve into complex forms, in some examples with multiple coffins, which at the dawn of XXVI^th Dynasty, return to its original, single forms. The article covers also the matter of stylistic tendencies in the decoration of sarcophagi. From the initial form, lacking the painted decoration, through examples dating back to Old and Middle Kingdom periods with limited decoration, up to “outburst of ornamentation” during the time of New Kingdom, with its downfall and return to the simple form with one emphasized element – the head of the deceased, at the end of discussed period. What is more the methods applied in the research pointed out the reasons of said changes. Among others there should be mentioned the political situation of Egypt, level of wealth of the society, access to raw materials, as well as the talent and commitment of the craftsmen.