The historical single line traced earlier is largely the story of the most visible, and in a sense, it represents merely one of the so many possible strands from the past. However, by the factor of prestige, the magnetic attraction of power in a stratified society, this artery of wealth is significant also for at least a proportion of those different other strands, increasingly bound into its hegemonic weave. A major motivating factor in the success of this particular tale of increasing normative standards from the palace center is technical: at the court of the king, embalmers developed techniques for preserving the human body after death, reinforced by intricate rituals. The technical history is not unilinear and evenly progressive, and the line is frequently broken, as the richest burials most swiftly attracted robbers. Yet it is possible to write a chronology of the afterlife treatment of kings and some of those closest to them, out of the monumental architecture together with a series of finds ranging from fragments to some substantially intact burials. At Abdju, 3000-2700 BC, a series of kings were buried in large mudbrick, later stone-clad, chambers, a kilometer into the desert; closer to the fields, mudbrick enclosures were set up for the burial, perhaps also for the embalming rites, and then dismantled after the funeral (O'Connor 2011). Around the tomb and the enclosure, the courtiers were buried in small rectangular pits, with pottery and sometimes equipment from their courtly life. From 2700 to 1800 BC, in the area from Giza to Fayoum, kingship cult is at the center of far the largest building projects in the land (Lehner 2008). Massive stone pyramid structures were constructed over the place for the final, and sometimes a second, resting place for the divine mortal body. Less well preserved in most instances, temples for the offerings to the king stood east of the pyramid reliquary.
From 1475 to 1075 Bc, the body of the king was laid to rest in a chamber beyond series of corridors and halls, cut from the rock in the desert valley west of Waset (Hornung 1990). The almost intact burial of king Tutankhamun indicates how kingship followed regular practice of the day, treating the underground chambers partly as a protective cocoon to project the successful embalming into eternity and partly as a storeroom for the food, clothing, jewelry, hunting and fighting equipment, and furniture of life. At this period, the temples for each ruler were separated from the tomb, along the side of the fields; longer-reigning rulers might receive more than one temple constructed along the Nile Valley in Nubia and Egypt. After 1100 bc, the pattern changes, as kings were buried in temple precincts, and their cults maintained perhaps mainly through offerings to their statues (or earlier statues reinscribed for them) in the temple forecourts. Again, in keeping with evidence for burial customs of the period, intact burials of three kings in the Amun temple complex at Djanet show a far greater focus on protection and transformation (Yoyotte 1987). Even the coffin face might take the form of a falcon, evoking the deities Ra and horus, rather than the human face usual on coffins of both kings and others at most periods. However, the Djanet treasures also contain the silver and gold vessels of palace ceremonial and ritual life.
Amid the treasure of each period, we might expect the body of the king to be object of embalming techniques as they developed over time. Advances in burial technology would start at the palace and spread out to other centers. In a general way, this may have happened: the earliest canopic chest and jars are from the immediate circle of kingship and give the first secure evidence that soft organs were removed from the body as part of embalming. however, surviving remains do not entirely match this picture. The earliest human body part from a royal tomb is an arm of uncertain origin, concealed after removal in a crevice in the tomb of King Djer, of the First Dynasty, at Abdju (Petrie 1901, 16-17). Armlets were still around the bones, but no signs of embalming were reported. Around 1800 BC, in the cemeteries of Mennefer, the body of King Auibra Hor was buried in a fine coffin, with accompanying statue topped by outstretched arms - the hieroglyph ka - and a canopic chest. Unfortunately, the excavation report did not discuss embalming technique. From about 1325 BC, the body of King Tutankhamun is poorly preserved, perhaps because the embalming oils reacted badly with the atmosphere of the burial chamber or were simply applied in too great quantity. The best evidence is from the reburial of New Kingdom kings and relatives in a cache to sanctify the Libyan family of generals ruling from Waset after 1070 BC. Some faces are so beautifully embalmed that they seem asleep, but the success is variable and not confined to the kings. As the living would never see the face after wrapping and masking, let alone burial, perhaps these variations are not surprising; the rites of embalming may have taken precedence over the details of perfect preservation. After 1070 BC, when all kings may have been buried in low Delta sites, literal preservation may have been even less of a focus, with attention instead permanently on the transformation of the divine mortal body into an immortal.
World History
