Ancient Funeral Practices Wow, it seems like we dug up more tombs in 2021 than ever before. I don’t have numbers on this, I am basing this on all the articles I saw during the year which talked about opening ancient tombs. It makes one wonder if any body is safe after being buried. Some will say they don’t care if in a thousand years or more they are dug up, others will get cremated, and still others will worry about it. I truly don’t think it makes any difference, but there is something creepy when we know our bodies may not be allowed to stay put. There have been many different funeral practices since humans have come to the earth. Many people are fascinated by the ancient Egyptians and the steps they took to try and keep their bodies from decay. I think it would be fair to say mummification was the biggest industry in Egypt for a thousand years or more. Did you ever wonder what the word mummy means? It comes from Arabic and means black which refers to the color of a mummified body. The ancient Egyptian religion was complicated. They believed the body had many parts but there was also something called the Ka and the Akh. They were sort of the bodies double. The ancient Egyptians used to depict something called the Ba as a bird with the decease’s head which could fly between the realms of the living and the dead. The Ka was part of a human’s soul which existed in the land of the living and the Akh was the part of the soul which existed in the land of the dead. They felt they had to keep their bodies intact and would have been terrified to know many of the mummies were used instead of wood which was scarce, to power the early steam trains in Egypt. I always felt we should recognize the religious beliefs of how bodies should be treated, but I guess this would destroy a good part of archaeology. The ancient Mesopotamians had a great fear they wouldn’t be buried after they died. Because of this they created a curse which included the phrase May The Earth Not Receive Your Corpses. This probably didn’t mean much to those who attacked them. The Mesopotamians were buried in cemeteries with valued possessions. In later times they were buried under their homes in a vault under them. It is believed burials started around 5,000 B.C. It was believed if a proper burial was not provided for the deceased they might return as a ghost which would haunt you and or get into your dreams. There was even the belief you could be possessed by the ghost. The ancient Jews believed a decent burial was very important. Jeremiah talked about not burying the dead and said, He Shall Be Buried With The Burial Of An Ass, Drawn And Cast Forth Beyond The Gates Of Jerusalem. This was a Jewish curse. The ancient Jews did not mean burial had to be under the earth however. Sometimes a cave was purchased for a burial. Abraham purchased a cave at Machpelah to be used as a family tomb. It has been said the ancient Chinese burial wishes sometimes led to the employment of clergymen of different religions at once to officiate at the funeral. While ordinary people passed unnoticed by time, the rich and powerful were buried with some of their possessions. Master Cheng said if the land where the tomb was is excellent, the spirits will be comfortable and the descendants will flourish. He also said five problems exist with picking a burial site. It will never be made into a road, a wall, ditch, it will not be seized by powerful people and never go under cultivation. The ancient Chinese believed the soul left the body when the person died. There were laws which governed the number of objects you could be buried with depending on your social standing. Before about 200 B.C. some Chinese rulers took their servants to the grave with them. You wouldn’t want to have been a servant in those days. The Vikings worshiped pagan gods and there were rules they had to go by for burials. The Vikings seemed to have two different types of funeral rites. One was cremation and the other was burial in the ground. Some of the Viking burials were very interesting because they were buried in boats. The dead were usually left in their everyday clothes and when they were buried some of their personal belongings were put in the grave with them. Some were even buried in wagons. Horses were found in some of the graves. The experts are not sure, but assume the wagons and horses were transportation for the next life. While there are many graves which have been found, cremations were the most popular form of dealing with the dead. Sometimes burials in the earth during the Viking period were called Inhumation, but it means the same thing. The ancient Maya had their own types of burial practices. They also had cremations and grave burials. They had many customs and traditions. It is said just because someone died, they were not forgotten. The Maya held great respect for their dead. The most burials took place beneath the floors of their homes. They could also have been buried in an elaborate tomb or a simple plot. They were also buried near a temple or such. The bodies were prepared and wrapped. If the person was a ruler he was faced in a certain direction. He or she was allowed to be buried with offerings and valuables. These were there for the ruler to use on his journey to the afterlife. The reason they wrapped the body was to show respect. When someone was buried, it could be in any position desired. Most rulers were buried facing East because that is where the sun rises from. Sometimes Mayans were buried with others called spirit companions. Food was also buried and considered important for the journey. I always wondered about this. One would think when the food didn’t disappear, it would be obvious it was never eaten. Burial customs today can be quite bizarre. One of the most bizarre seems to be to be the one where you take the remains and turn them into something else, such as beads. This has become quite popular in South Korea. The dead are turned into colorful beads. There is a company in the United States that turns the dead into a sphere and attaches it to a reef. Some day archaeologists may look at this and think we were a strange race indeed.
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