Essential Question:
What were the ancient beliefs and how did they affect the Egyptians lives?
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Isis
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Osiris
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Ra
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Bes
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This is an image of a pyramid from earthnworld.com.
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1. How did religion influence every aspect of Ancient Egyptian everyday life?
As part of my research, I spoke to a few Ancient Egyptian priests and learned that religion influenced every aspect of the Ancient Egyptians everyday life because almost everything they did had to do with their beliefs. For example, the Egyptians respected the pharaoh because they believed he was the son of Re (Ray), god of the Sun. They thought that their ruler was a god on earth who sheltered Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians also worshiped many gods and goddesses, and they thought theirs were more powerful than the gods/goddesses of Mesopotamia. They understood that the gods controlled natural forces as well as their everyday lives, which shows why religion influenced everything in the Egyptians everyday lives (McTighe).
2. What are 3-5 characteristics of the Ancient Egyptian religion/belief system (gods, goddesses, legends, view of the afterlife)?
After I talked to the priests, I interviewed some Ancient Egyptian women collecting water at the Nile's edge, and they told me that there are many characteristics of the Ancient Egyptian belief and religions system, like their view of the Afterlife. The Ancient Egyptians viewed the Afterlife positively. They even believed that life after death was even better than the present life, and that after death, the dead arrived at a place of peace. Another characteristic of their religions/beliefs are their many gods and goddesses. The Ancient Egyptians believed in and worshiped many gods like the sun god Re, and the river god Hapi. There was also another important god called Osiris, and his wife is the goddess Isis. Together they rule over the underworld, world of the dead. Another god is Thoth and he is the god of learning. Most Egyptian gods and goddesses can take human and animal form. One last characteristic of the Egyptians religion is that when a person died, they mummify the body. People called embalmers perform the mummification ritual (see in “How to Make a Mummy”), and the mummy is buried in the hot desert sands. The Ancient Egyptians believed that then, the dead’s soul would travel on a journey to the afterlife (McTighe).
3. Why and how were the pyramids built and how does it connect to the Egyptian religion/belief system?
Then I stopped by a pyramid being constructed by several men in the lower social classes and they describesd the pyramids to me. Pyramids were built to bury pharaohs and great rulers in and to honor them. Pharaohs were buried with things they’d need in the Afterlife, like food, wine, weapons, jewelry, furniture, cloth, and sometimes even large boats. To build the pyramids, thousands of workers spent years of hard labor working on the pyramid. The workers searched for stone near the Nile River and skilled artisans carved them using copper tools into large blocks. Then stones were transported on barges to the work site of the pyramid. Then workers pushed them up ramps that made the levels of the pyramid. Pyramids connect to the Ancient Egyptian belief system because the pyramids were filled with items that would help them in the Afterlife, which was believed to be better than present life (McTighe).
How-To Make a Mummy!
DIRECTIONS:
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STEP 1: Before the body was embalmed, priests removed all of the body's organs, which were then stored in special jars that were buried with the body, but they left the heart in the body because the Ancient Egyptians believed the dead would need it in the Afterlife (McTighe).
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STEP 2: Next, the priests covered the body in natron (a salt), and then it was stored for many days. The salt dried the body which made the water evaporate and this made the body smaller (McTighe).
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STEP 3: After that, the body was filled with spices and tightly wrapped with many strips of fine woven linen. Then the body became known as a mummy ((McTighe) and (Ancient Egypt Videos)).
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STEP 4: Finally, the mummy was placed in a coffin, and sealed in a tomb. If the person was poorer, they buried the body in the hot desert sand (McTighe).
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Interesting Fact!
From embalming bodies, it helped the Egyptians develop medical skills, like how to stitch up cuts, and heal broken bones, and they were the first to use bandages and splints (McTighe).
From embalming bodies, it helped the Egyptians develop medical skills, like how to stitch up cuts, and heal broken bones, and they were the first to use bandages and splints (McTighe).
Primary Source: Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead was most likely one of the most important archaeological discoveries about Ancient Egypt. It tells historians about the Afterlife and the hundreds of available spells that the Ancient Egyptians believed could be used in the Afterlife. This tells us a lot about the Ancient Egyptians beliefs and religions because the Afterlife was not just one of many options for the Egyptians. It was the only option, so they directed most of their lives towards getting there. No historian can say that another text provides as much information as the Ancient Egyptian's Book of the Dead on the Afterlife (Primary Sources).
This is a picture of the Ancient Egyptian's Book of the Dead from pinterest.com.
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