The surviving texts from the Middle Kingdom (see box, page 24) do provide a considerable amount of historical information, while the elegant style of writing makes them absorbing works of literature as well. In place of the archaic stiffness and elaborate praise of the old tomb inscriptions, these texts are lively and occasionally even critical of society.
Many of the texts express a feeling of disillusionment, an attitude that extended to the Egyptians’ view of the hereafter.
Some harpists’ songs called on the listeners to enjoy life on earth because only decline awaited them after death. This view is illustrated in one pessimistic story that consists of a dialogue between a man and his soul, or ba. The man says he is tired of life and is considering killing himself.
His ba, which greatly prefers earthly life, threatens to leave the man if he goes through with it. This attitude is in striking contrast to the earlier Egyptian belief that life after death would be a happier continuation of life on earth.
In the Old Kingdom, the rituals of preparing a deceased person for life in the hereafter had been
Centered around the pharaoh. After his death, he was said to become a god, with his living and dead subjects as his dependents. It is doubtful whether the ordinary Egyptian had much hope of a life in the hereafter. However, this view changed in the course of the First Intermediate period. The ordinary Egyptian no longer depended on his king after death; he himself could obtain divine status by becoming one with Osiris, the god of death.
Life after death
In the Middle Kingdom, elaborate funeral rituals were carried out for Egypt’s wealthier and more important citizens. The body was embalmed, swathed in linen, and buried in a rectangular wooden coffin. The inside of the coffin was often inscribed with magic sayings—so-called coffin texts. By providing answers to the difficult questions that would be asked, the texts would help the deceased reach the hereafter safely. This knowledge, together with impeccable behavior in life, was of major importance in obtaining life after death.
To sustain the deceased in their future lives, food was placed in the tombs, together with models of objects that would be useful, such as wooden figurines of servants, workshops, ships with their crews, and armies. Figures known
This statue from around 1700 BCE depicts a scribe called Senebtyfy.
His full figure is an indication of wealth.
The gods Anubis and Ammit weigh the heart of someone who has recently died. Ammit devoured the souls of people who had not lived a virtuous life.
As ushebtis or shawabtis accompanied the deceased. Usheb means “answer” and shawab means “persea wood,” so the names allude both to the function of the figures—answering the gods—and to the substance from which they were initially made.
Although the dead were provided with equipment of their own, it was expected that they would need additional food, and for this, they remained dependent upon the king. He had to appease the gods so they would receive and feed his subjects. The inscriptions on the steles (tombstones), which expressed the deceased’s wish to continue to receive food, always start with the words “an offering given by the king.”
The offerings were not only symbolic; the surviving next-of-kin made gifts of real food to deceased relatives, usually on holy days. The rich could also hire the services of special priests, generally connected to the local temple for this purpose. The tomb of the provincial administrator Djefai-Hapi, near Asyut, dates from the 12th dynasty and contains wall inscriptions that list a number of contracts he made with priests prior to his death. The contracts commit the priests to make offerings at his burial chapel, and the reward was to consist of the offerings themselves; after death, he, like the gods, could consume the offerings only in spirit, so the bread, beer, and meat that were offered remained for the priests after the ritual. This was a common practice.
World History
