Definition of Book of the Dead

All human beings have at some time considered the idea of ​​death. For the ancient Egyptians death physical it was not final, but was actually the first step on a journey that could lead to eternal life. What we know about his vision of death is collected in what is known as "Book of the Dead ", a document which is currently in the British Museum in London.

Thousands of copies of this document have been found, but the "Papyrus of Ani" is the best preserved.

The key to life in the afterlife

This book tells what happens to the human soul after death. It includes all the tests that must be passed before reaching the room where the final judgment will be held in which the heart Men's. In this sense, some Egyptologists consider that in the contents From the book are the keys to life in the afterlife.

From earthly death to Paradise

When someone died, his internal organs were kept in containers, the canupias. The rest of the body was modified in a complex embalming procedure. Next to the mummy deposited in the sarcophagus, the Egyptians placed a "

Handbook of instructions ", which is known by the term Book of the Dead (its original title is different and is usually translated as" The Book of the day out ").

In this document appears all the procedure related to the journey of the human soul after death. Some of the indications contained are the following:

1) a detailed analysis of the mummification process (the extraction of the internal organs of the body except the heart, the corpse is covered with salt so that this substance can absorb moisture from the body, the body is covered with vegetable and animal oil, inside the body resin resins are conifers and ointments that prevent decomposition and after this process the final linen bandage of the body is carried out),

2) once mummification was performed as a starting point, the ancient Egyptians considered that the soul was in the empty body of the mummy,

3) so that the soul of the deceased could see and speak in the final judgment, the mummy had a hole in the mouth and in the eyes,

4) the spirit of the deceased meets the God Anubis in the afterlife and this god is in charge of opening the mouth of the deceased so that he defends himself before the gods in the final judgment,

5) already in the courtroom a jury of gods ask questions about the deceased's past behavior

6) if the answers are correct, the god Osiris dictates the final sentence

7) if the assessment of Osiris was positive the spirit of the individual lived eternally in the fields of Aaru, the equivalent of Paradise.

Topics in Book of the Dead