Religion 2732 Lecture 3

Death in the ancient world

Hunters and gatherers were the first human beings. There religious ideas are reflected in religious cultures today.

Shaman is the person/person's who are considered as the most striking representative in the community. The ones who can travel between the seen and the unseen 
worlds


Prehistoric periods
 
 Neanderthal : 230,000 - 30,000 BC [old stone age]
 Cro/magnon  : 30/40,000 - 7000 BC [middle stone age (10,000 BC)]
 Neolithic   : 7000-3000 BC [new stone age]
 
Neanderthal:
 
Excavations can tell that ancient people buried their dead. When the graves were excavated the archaeologist found out food and tools in the graves 
Some graves also had some non-practical offerings found in the graves e.g. a body(in Iraq) was found covered with pollen grains from species of different flowers.
So we can deduce that in modern day the tradition of putting flowers on/in the grave comes from very long time.



Cro/magnon:

They chose burial sites under a kind of protective stone slab (in Uk). Ornaments like shell bracelets, weapons and food were found.
They also found the presence of a practice of pouring of a red colouring on the bones. What we can understand is that there seems to be an attempt 
to satisfy the needs and the desires of the dead by the living. Whether to provide for them as if they are going on a journey or something else

Neolithic:

Same stone slab kind of graves (in Ireland). This period marks the beginning of agriculture and the domestication of animals.


Agriculture + Domestication = Major change in how people spent time and how they viewed there environment

In the earliest nomadic society the hunt was the crucial source of survival. So religion would be tied to the economic source (animal).
The religious elements that were associated with the hunt were fasting, dancing, magic, how to ensure a successful hunt.

Agriculture vs Hunting societies:

Hunting societies:
Hunting represented outwitting, negotiating, and dominating an animal. In the hunting societies many rituals are done to bring the animal to the hunter to ensure the
success of the hunt. They do that to  make an agreement with the animal to be food. Because killing the animal like that may bring revenge from the animal 
spirits (LOL) 

Agricultural societies:

They depended on the earth to be fertile, on the sun (to shine) and the rain to provide water when it should. Natural disasters like a flood, earthquake destructed the 
society. The societies where there was a need to depend on the earth to be fertile, to them the earth appeared as a mother. Emphasis on the mother goddess, on the 
cycle of the 4 seasons. Agricultural societies are bound to a place, where there food is planted where as the hunting societies moved around.
They also had the concept of rebirth (return to life after death) as new leaves come every spring and the land gets fertile after a river flood.

So when people learnt how to grow food they also understood that the more farmers they have on a land the more they can produce. This lead to population 
growth, leading to organized settlements that implemented irrigation systems, trading and defence against raiders. Sophisticated settlements lead to 
larger political units where the land was fertile (near water specifically river's Nile,Tigris,Yellow,Euphrates,Indus). All the great empires were built around 
such rivers.



Ancient Empires:

A common institution of the ancient empire was the divine king. He was not a political leader but much more. 
He was part of the divine order. He was the link between heaven and earth, through his rituals the divine order was kept and harmonized.
Polytheism was also present. Different tribes had there own gods, they amalgamated under the king and the divine order was formed served by the priests.







Egyptian Empire:

4 components of persons:

1) Material body :(3 types -> Living body, corpse, transformed (mummified body)
2) Immaterial souls : (2 types -> ka soul: spirit double/ life force, ba soul : animating spirit that leaves at death. (represented pictorially as a human headed bird)
3) Name of the person
4) Shadow/Shade - ghost like figure associated with the tomb


The ba soul could actually travel back and forth(in dreams) and so therefore in the tomb there was a small passage way that was constructed for the ba soul so that
it could come and go.


The body was regarded as the home of all immaterial aspects so the body had to be maintained.


They also had a ritual for the purpose of giving life to a dead person. One such ritual is called the opening of the mouth. This was carried out in order to enliven the mummy
Upon death the body was not discarded, it was mummified.

There was no concept of cremation, it was thought evil.  


Historical periods in Ancient Eygptian history

3 possible afterlife destinations:

1) Among the stars - found in the earliest texts
2) With the sun god Ra - a later development
3) In the new kingdom of Osiris - this is the predominant after life goal



Old Kingdom (2600 BCE) also known as Pyramid Age
-> Pyramid texts - Spells and verses carved on the pyramids
 They believed that the rulers could live(when dead) with the stars or he could go with the sun god, or in the under world kingdom of Osaires
 
Middle kingdom 2000 BCE
-> Coffin texts - democratization of the after life
Spells were carved on the lids and inside of the coffin 

New Kingdom (1500 BCE)
-> Egyptian book of the dead - the books of "going out into the day" 
emphasis on judgement and eternal life in the kingdom of Osiris


The tomb's also had the Shabti (servent/slave) statues. They were there to serve the dead person in the next life to do the work.

Story regarding Osiris(King of the Underworld):

Osiris was killed and broken down into pieces, but later he was resurrected, brought back to life. He was wrapped in a white cloth to put together in one
piece and brought to life by Isis and Nepthys. Egyptian saw this an opportunity to bring back their loved ones back to life by this ritual.
Osiris was the first mummy in Egyptian history. This brought a start to the ritual of mummification.


Kingdom of Osiris:

Field of Reeds
Field of Rushes
Osirian Fields
Elysian Fields


Here the grain grew 10 feet tall. Each dead person was given his own piece of land. These people spent their time working in thier fields, eating, drinking 
and enjoying their lives.

How did people qualify to attain a place in the Kingdom of Osiris ?
People when dead were judged by Osiris and his judges to see if the person is good and worthy of a place in the kingdom

Judgement hall of Osiris:

The soul is conducted in the hall of judgement by Anubis. The soul has to make confession and give up is heart to be weighed by 42 judges
The heart is weighed on a scale with a feather on the other side to check how light hearted the person was (LOL FML :)).
This feather was called the feather of Maat(The goddess of truth wore this on her head).

If your heart is lighter then the feather then you are good to go to, but if not then the soul faces a 2nd terrible death. It is devoured by the eater of the
dead. The crocodile headed amit. This resulted in total annihilation.

So people feared this, and not death. Death was simply seen as a passage to another life, a passage that could be negotiated from the spells and writings, but they 
feared the second death

The judgement was absolute a person had to be entirely pure in order to attain a place in the kingdom.



Mesopotamian view of a person:

Human being is created form a mixture of the blood of a sacrificed god and clay. Upon death the person becomes bones and clay

Comparison between Egyptian and Mesopotamian view of death ?


Egyptian View 
Mesopotamian View
Had ornaments tools buried with the corps. Mummification of the corpse
They had tombs for the dead but not tools and scripts like the Egyptians had. No mummification
Very fascinated with death and the hereafter, the kingdom of Osiris. 
No keen interest comparatively. They thought human life is where all joy, respect and love is present.
Body and the soul both live and are either annihilated if the person failed or in the kingdom of Osiris
The clay part became bones, god part becomes the ghost, who is the continuing part. 
Death is just a passage to the next life. Towards the Kingdom of Osiris or towards total annihilation
Death is actually the end of any kind of life that you would have cared to have


