Ancient Egypt: Funerary objects
Amulets
Canopic jars
Censers
Coffins
Funerary cones
Funerary masks
Hypocephali
Models
Mummy labels
The nemset vessel
The netjeri blade
Offering tables
Osiris beds
Papyrus scrolls
The pesesh-kaf
Reserve heads
Statues
Stelae
Ushabtis

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Funerary objects

Objects played a major part in ancient Egyptian funerary customs. They served to enable the deceased to continue his existence in the beyond, some were tools with which the corpse was made ready for burial and the afterlife, others were grave goods which the deceased could use.

Some of the grave goods from the tomb of Tutankhamen
Courtesy Simon Hayter ^[1]

The earliest of these were containers holding food and throughout Egyptian history nourishment, without which there was no hope for eternal life, remained essential, and it was generally the duty of the eldest son to supply it to his parents. Nor could the deceased do without the help of magic which was furnished him in the form of objects and texts, and to make afterlife acceptable to the wealthy they were given statues, clothing, furniture, servants, weapons and tools.
Many objects found in tombs were ordinary things: tools, pots, chests, baskets, amulets, etc which the Egyptians used every day. Others, like censers, were employed in religious ceremonies in general and some were specially made for the occasion: coffins, masks, ushabtis, models or scrolls with spells designed to help a person to survive in the afterworld.

Amulets

Amulets were part of the life of all ancient Egyptians. They were the kind of magic everybody could afford and were hoped to protect life and limb.

Heart Scarab of Hatnofer,
ca. 1466 B.C.E.; Western Thebes
Courtesy "Rogers Fund", 1936 (36.3.2)
Source: Metmuseum website ^[2]

Nor would the deceased do without them, as the journey through the beyond was exceedingly dangerous. Most important among the amulets was the heart amulet, which was placed above the heart left inside the deceased person's chest after all the other organs had been removed. Its task was to prevent the heart from bearing witness against the deceased and help him pass the judgment of the dead with success.^[3]
When wrapping a mummy, amulets were placed in its swathing, so they would always remain in place and protect it. Especially popular was the djed-pillar amulet, which ensured stability.^[4] The spell spoken over the amulet was

Raise yourself up, Osiris! You have your backbone once more, O weary-hearted one (i.e. deceased one); you have your vertebrae.
Book of the Dead, chapter 155^[5]

The tit-amulet, a symbol for the knotted belt of Isis, a goddess great of magic, protected limbs and the wadj granted eternal rejuvenation. The weres-amulet, a symbolic headrest, kept the head raised.^[5]
The tomb itself could do with some protection too. During the 18th dynasty an amulet was imbedded in a nook in each of its four walls, and later, in the Ramesside period, statuettes of deities were also hidden in such niches.^[6]

Canopic jars

Canopic jars were receptacles of stone or ceramic material used for storing the inner organs which were removed during embalmment. The 4th dynasty queen Hetepheres is the first person known to have her organs preserved. They were dried with natron and stored in a chest of Egyptian alabaster with four compartments. In later times four sperate vases with stoppers were used for this purpose. Each receptacle came to be assigned to one of the four sons of Horus and contained either the stomach, the intestines, the lungs, or the liver. These sets of jars were often put in canopic chests. By the Middle Kingdom two containers were at times used for a single set of jars, an outer one made of stone and an inner, wooden one.

Canopic jar, tomb of Senebhenaf at Abydos
2nd Intermediate Period
Courtesy Simon Hayter ^[1]

From the First Intermediate Period onward the stoppers were often given the shape of human heads. After the Amarna Period human heads were replaced by those of the Sons of Horus and by the 19th dynasty the use of humanoid stoppers ceased.

Canopic jars of Neskhons, wife of Pinedjem II
GNU Free Documentation License
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CanopicJarsOfNeskhons-BritishMuseum-August21-08.jpg

The use of canopic jars was gradually discontinued during the first millennium BCE, as the viscera began to be returned into the body cavity after embalmment. The last known royal canopic jar belonged to Apries. Empty or dummy canopic jars were still at times placed in the tombs, but by the Roman period the custom had disappeared completely.^[7]
Even during their heyday the use of canopic jars remained limited to the upper social strata. No canopic jars were for instance found in the New Kingdom cemetery northeast of Gurob, where lower and middle class people were buried in simple pits without superstructure and apparently without embalmment.^[8] By the time mummification became cheaper and more accessible in the Ptolemaic period, the canopic jars had gone out of fashion.

Censers

The divine was associated with pleasant smells and therefore incense was burnt in temples where it also hid the smell from the animal offerings.

The king offering incense
Tomb of Seti I
Courtesy Jon Bodsworth

Incense also played a part in the funerary rites, where the deceased was made ready to meet the gods, and censers were among the grave goods as early as the Old Kingdom.^[9]
Censers came in various shapes. Some were shaped like tiny altars, but many were hand held, metal cups or half spheres at times sitting on top of short handles, with or without a lid, and during the New Kingdom they might be metal-lined bowls at the end of carved, armlike handles with pellet containers from which the bowls could be refilled with incense.^[10] Above all royal censers were often beautifully decorated, showing kings prostrating themselves (a first instance is known from the Middle Kingdom) or kneeling (Ahmose II).^[11]

Censer 3rd IP bronze censer. The censer bowl which was affixed to the hand is missing.
License: GNU Free Documentation License,
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Egyptian_censer.jpg

Coffins

Stone sarcophagus of Thutmose III
License: Public Domain
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tuth-grab1.jpg

Prehistoric Egyptians were buried without coffins in simple pits dug in the ground, which at times brought about a natural mummification of the body, though it may be doubted that this kind of preservation had any influence on the development of their embalming techniques. In the late fourth millennium some corpses were wrapped in mats, from the Old Kingdom on upper class Egyptians began to be buried in coffins made of basketry, wood, clay or even stone, referred to as sarcophagi, which housed the ka in the ever developing tombs the rich constructed. Towards the end of the Old Kingdom the coffins were decorated with food offerings, and during the Middle Kingdom they were inscribed with spells ^[12] and maps of the beyond were painted on them for the deceased to make use of. The coffin texts were replaced by the Books of Dead written on papyrus scrolls, but from the late New Kingdom on the inside of coffins was often decorated again and during the Late Period they were inscribed with excerpts from the Book of the Dead.

Sarcophagus of Setau Sarcophagus lid of Setau, viceroy of Kush under Ramses II. British Museum
License: GNU Free Documentation License
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Setau.JPG

The form of the coffins changed significantly over the centuries. At first the deceased were buried in a foetal or flexed position and the coffins were accordingly rather short and vaulted. By the 4th dynasty the corpses were stretched out flat on their backs and the coffins became longer and somewhat flatter, The 12th dynasty saw the coffins taking on the shape of a mummy.^[12] At times a number of coffins were put inside each other. Tutankhamen for instance was protected by three coffins. The outer sarcophagus had a relief of the recumbent king as Osiris carved into it, the one in the middle made of wood decorated with gold and semi-precious stones was mummiform as was the inner coffin made of solid gold.

Lid of slipper coffin, courtesy Simon Hayter Lid of slipper coffin
Courtesy Simon Hayter ^[1]

Most Egyptians could not afford burials with expensive stone sarcophagi or even just decorated wooden coffins and continued to inter their loved ones in simple pits often without any coffins at all and few of these poorest of burials have left traces, or in coffins made of cheap materials, which, if they were organic, would generally decay and disappear together with the body. But if clay was used chances were they would survive millennia. Such were the slipper coffins, large ceramic receptacles made on potters' wheels, into which the corpse was slid and which were then sealed with a lid. They were customary in Canaan when the Egyptians had outposts there in the Late Bronze Age, and were adopted by some as fashion of burial ^[13] and still used as late as Roman times.^[14]
But even such specially made earthenware pots were beyond the means of many, and dead babies for instance were at times placed in old terracotta jars whose mouths had been enlarged by breaking off pieces of the lip, and which were then sealed with mud.^[15]

Ptolemaic coffin frame made of ribs of palm leaves
(Loat 1904, Plate XVIII)

Mats were at times used to wrap the corpse ^[16], a fragile coffin was constructed of ribs of palm leaves or the deceased might be buried in a basket.^[17] Often an attempt was made to decorate these coffins. The Ptolemaic palm leave coffin mentioned had been painted green and pink, and figures of protective deities were at times painted on pottery coffins.^[18]

Funerary cones

Eight centimetre tall cones made of clay, precursors of the later funerary cones, are known from the prehistoric period. They may have served as tomb decorations. Similar decorations found in Mesopotamia suggest Mesopotamian influences.

Inscription on a pink pottery funerary cone belonging to the overseer of the House of the God's Wife Djehutinefermahu
Late Period
Source: Petrie Museum website UC30174

From the 11th dynasty onward fifteen to twenty centimetre tall cone-shaped bricks–very rarely they had the form of a pyramid instead of a cone ^[19]–were part of the tomb front and they were specially fashionable during the New Kingdom. The base of the cone remained visible and was inscribed with the name of the tomb owner and his titles.^[20] During the period of Egyptian hegemony in the Levant funerary cones came to be produced abroad as well. Similarly shaped terracotta bricks inscribed with the throne name of Thutmose III and possibly that of Hatshepsut are the oldest to be found in southern Canaan.^[21]

Funerary masks

Masks may have played a role in religious ceremonies. It has been suggested that priests wore them when representing their gods. Their role in the funerary context is much better documented. They were referred to as mysterious heads, protected their wearers and enabled the deceased, identified with Osiris, to become, in the words of Anubis in chapter 151 of the Book of the Dead, Lord of vision. The spells of this chapter were written on the inside of the masks since the Middle Kingdom.^[47]
Mask of Tutankhamen

The wish to lend the deceased an eternal human face dates back to the Old Kingdom. At times plaster was applied directly to the face or to the linen wrapping covering it, molded and painted to resemble a face. The first masks were carved from wood during the First Intermediate Period.^[22] Cartonnage, a number of layers of papyrus or of linen cloth stuck together and stiffened with gesso, began to be used at about the same time in the making of mummy masks and was still employed in Graeco-Roman times, when painted heads of plaster and pictures painted in encaustic on wood became popular.^[23]

Golden mask of Tutankhamen
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toetanchamon.jpg
GNU Free Documentation License

The masks were at times beautifully crafted, painted and sometimes expensively gilded. Among the most accomplished were the royal funerary masks, few of which have survived. They were made of solid gold, the immortal flesh of the gods shining like the sun, with inlays of precious stones used for their symbolic values. Like the statuary placed in the tombs, these masks could serve as substitutes for the real thing.^[24]

Hypocephali

Hypocephalus of Tashenkhons, daughter of Khonsardais
Late Period
Courtesy Simon Hayter ^[1]

Hypocephali were amuletic disks with a diameter of about 15 cm made of papyrus, generally mounted on cartonnage, stuccoed linen or, more rarely, of bronze.^[25] They were inscribed with extracts from Chapter 162 of the Book of the Dead and often decorated with vignettes. Placed directly underneath the head of the mummy, they were supposed to warm it.^[26] Surviving hypocephali date to the Late Period or later.^[27]

Models

Possibly as late as the Early Dynastic Period funerary sacrifices of royal retainers destined to serve the king in the afterlife may have taken place. These practices ceased and the tombs were furnished with figurines of servants and pictures instead.^[30]

A so-called "Concubine of the dead"
19th dynasty, Gurob
Source: Petrie Museum website, UC16758

The need for servants may have been most pressing to those who had been waited upon hand and foot during their lifetime, but people saw also the need to have models of granaries, houses, gardens, of farmers ploughing, of carpenters building furniture, weavers weaving cloth, of model tools and weapons, boats, furniture, animals and even of model offerings.
The models served various purposes. During the Middle Kingdom, when they were more fashionable than at any other time, clay house models, the so-called soul houses, were left on top of pit graves and had the function of offering tables, ensuring the continued existence in the afterlife.

Model granary
Abydos, 1st dynasty
Petrie Museum website UC36721b

Wooden models of farmers and artisans plying their trade placed in rock-cut tombs on the other hand were destined to increase the material well-being of the tomb owner,^[28] and clay granaries to ensure their food supply. The importance the Nile had as a waterway and the place navigation had in mythology is reflected in the great number of boat models; in the tomb of Meketre for instance they made up half of all the models.^[29] As funerary boats their role was to further the deceased person's progress through the underworld.

Mummy labels

A limestone mummy label with the inscription: Tasheretpadihorsematawy daughter of Padihorsematawy, Osiris, Denderah, Roman Period
Source: Petrie Museum web site: UC34484

Mummy labels are tags that were often attached to the deceased during the Graeco-Roman period so they could be identified. This had become necessary as the number of people being embalmed had grown during this time and mistakes must have started happening. These tablets were made of wood or limestone and often have a hole for tying them to the mummy. The inscriptions are generally written in ink in demotic or Greek, although hieroglyphs are also used occasionally^[60] and hieratic.^[61] They included the name and at times the age, the home town of the deceased and the date of burial rather than the date of death ^[64]. If the mummy had to be shipped somewhere the destination was recorded and occasionally the transportation costs. Even funerary prayers might be included ^[59] and pictures of Anubis embalming the mummy.^[58]. A stela-shaped mummy label was made for Petemin, who died during the Roman Period. It contained the following hieratic text:^[62]

May his soul live: Petemin, son of Petempto, before Osiris, first of the West, the Great God, Lord of Abydos, until eternity and also into eternity, while his soul serves Osiris-Sokaris, the Great God, the mysterious, who repeats for him rejuvenation and vigour into eternity and also eternity.

The term is sometimes used loosely. A Greek mummy label reads like a bill of lading:^[63]

Consignment: To the harbour of the village of Kerke in the Arsinoite nome the lightly clad body of Plousianos, son of Aurelius Hakar and deliver (it) to the undertakers there. from the village of Philadelphia.

As the number of people who could barely afford embalmment was growing, these labels could be used to perpetuate the name of the deceased instead of having to commission an expensive mortuary stela or tombstone.^[59]
A great number of mummy labels have been found. Their analysis contributes greatly to the knowledge of population statistics of Graeco-Roman Egypt.

The nemset vessel

Faience nemset vessel, New Kingdom
Courtesy: Museum of Fine Art, Boston

Nemset (translit. nms.t) vessels were vases which often had a spout for easy pouring and which were used for libation or lustration. They are frequently depicted in scenes of the Openening of the Mouth ritual or of offerings to the gods.

Dispense water for Osiris Khentamenti, my King, the lord of Abydos, while the goddesses are bearing a libation vessel, a situla and a nemset-jar.
Papyrus Harkness, Roman Period ^[65]

The netjeri blade

The Openening of the Mouth ceremony from the papyrus of Hunefer

The netjeri (transliteration nTr.tj) was an adze-like instrument of metal, often meteoric iron, used in the Opening-of-the-Mouth ritual.

The use of the netjeri-blade during the opening of the mouth ceremony
Papyrus of Hunefer

Its use dates to ancient times, and it is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts:

Osiris Unas, I shall open your mouth for you. Upper Egyptian instrument for the opening of the mouth, (made of) metal, Lower Egyptian instrument for the opening of the mouth, (made of) metal.
Unas Pyramid, PT 38 ^[31]

Offering tables

Ptolemaic limestone offering table Ptolemaic (?) limestone offering table
Source: Petrie Museum website, UC10710

Offerings of food were basic to the continued existence of the gods and the dead alike. They were often presented to them on special tables. In the homes these might stand in niches in a room used as a domestic shrine,^[32] in temples in rooms dedicated to offerings and in tombs below ground if there was an accessible chapel,^[33] otherwise it was placed on the ground on top of the grave.

During the Old Kingdom food offerings were presented to the deceased lucky enough to have a substantial tomb on stone platters or offering tables in front of their funerary stela, but for most the offerings probably looked more like the hieroglyph for "food offering", a loaf of bread placed on top of a mat. The Middle Kingdom fashion was for clay Soul Houses, little models of houses with courtyards, which had been developed from simple pottery offering platters ^[66] and in which the offerings were placed.^[34] The offering tables were decorated with food stuffs and inscribed with the offering prayers,^[35] which would nourish the deceased through their magic, if real foodstuffs were not provided.^[36]
In depictions the offering tables are laden with a great variety of exquisite foodstuffs, and quite possibly that was the quality and quantity of offerings customary among the rich. Poorer folk restricted their food offerings and libations to what they could afford, sometimes to the basic bread and water.

Osiris beds

Osiris beds were found in the royal tombs of Biban el Muluk and date to the New Kingdom. They are the oldest archaeological finds connecting Osiris with grain and the grain god Nepri, a tradition which began in the Middle Kingdom. A wooden frame in the form of the god Osiris or a brick with the form of the god cut into it is filled with soil in which barley seeds are sown. When the barley germinates Osiris is "resurrected". By identifying himself with the god the deceased hoped to share his fate and experience resurrection.^[37]

Osiris bed
Thebes c. 500 BCE
Courtesy Simon Hayter ^[1]

It appears that the 18th day of the month was dedicated to a ritual connected with the Osiris bed. According to an inscription in the tomb of Neferhotep who died during the reign of Thutmose III that was the day of the moistening of the barley and spreading a bed for the Osiris Neferhotep.^[38]
The Osiris beds are reminiscent of the corn mummies, mummiform loaves of soil and grain representing Osiris, which were buried in pits and not in graves, apparently as part of the Osiris mysteries rather than of funerary ceremonies.

Papyrus scrolls

Funerary texts belong to the oldest written documents. At first they were inscribed on the tomb walls in the pyramids; from the First Intermediate Period on similar magical texts were written on coffins. During the New Kingdom papyrus scrolls with the information necessary to successfully complete the journey through the underworld, the so-called Books of the Dead, were placed in reach of the mummy.^[52] At times lavishly illustrated these netherworld guides were quite expensive, but could be purchased by anybody having the necessary means.^[50]

The pesesh-kaf

Peseh-kaf Pesesh-kaf made of chert, 15 cm long
Predynastic, found at Badari
Source: Petrie Museum website UC10244

The pesesh-kaf (transliteration psS-kAf) was a fishtail-shaped ritual instrument originally made of flint used during the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, in which the mouth of the mummies or of the funerary statues was touched with the instrument, enabling them to use it in the afterworld. The oldest finds date to the prehistoric Naqada Period (4000-3500 BCE).^[39] Together with the netjeri-blade it is at times mentioned in the lists of funerary offerings between items for purification like natron and foodstuffs like milk and whole loaves of Pat-bread:

Pesesh-kaf instrument 1
Metal pellets (?) Upper Egyptian instrument for the opening of the mouth, 2
Metal pellets (?) Lower Egyptian instrument for the opening of the mouth, 2
Inscription on the coffin of Henti/Henet, CG 28006, Achmim^[40]

Reserve heads

Life sized sculptures of the heads on necks (but without shoulders) of noble men and women found in Old Kingdom mastabas at Giza, Abusir and Dahshur are referred to as reserve heads but could perhaps more aptly be termed magical heads.^[48]

Reserve head of Nofer
Giza, 4th dynasty
Courtesy Simon Hayter ^[1]

Under Snofru reserve heads carved from limestone began to replace funerary statues ^[51] and during the 4th and 5th dynasties,^[49] above all during the reigns of Khufu and Khafre,^[48] they were placed in the burial chambers of tombs and not in the serdab, where the funerary statue of the tomb owner had been erected. They were seemingly naturalistic portraits probably destined to perpetuate the features of the deceased, as did the mummy masks later on. They were possibly created with the help of plaster casts made of the face of the portrayed person.^[47]
Much about the function of the reserve heads is still unclear. They were apparently used in ceremonies to magically cleanse the deceased from all evil; and the fact that many of them do not have any ears may be a reminder that the necropolis is a place of silence.^[48] It has also been suggested that, just as grave figurines of dangerous animals were purposefully damaged to prevent them from endangering the deceased, reserve heads symbolized the decapitation of the deceased to protect the living from them.^[67]

Statues

Cf. Ancient Egyptian portraiture

During the Old Kingdom statues of the ka were generally put in the serdab (Egyptian pr-twt, house of the statue or likeness) of the mastabas. These had narrow windows through which the ka could leave to partake of the offerings. These statues were expensive, often carved from the hardest of rocks with a high degree of craftsmanship. In the mastaba of Wep-em-nefret there is a scene in which two sculptors argue:

(The sculptor on the right) You are a fool! You know this work. You cannot say: 'Isn't wood like stone?'!
(The sculptor on the left) It is a month since those days, when I (first) laid my hand on this statue which is in my hand.
Giza, 5th dynasty^[53]

Kings, who had the whole wealth of Egypt at their disposal could, like Sahure in his pyramid complex at Abusir, fill niche after niche in their statue chamber with life-sized effigies of themselves.^[54] Officials might have to rely on the bounty of the king. Some statues from the Middle Kingdom and later bear an inscription acknowledging the indebtedness of the statue owners to their lord's munificence. Autobiographical texts also began to be inscribed on the statues.^[55]
The purpose of these often beautiful statues was not the esthetic delectation of mortals; they gave the deceased an eternal form through which priests and relatives, above all eldest sons, could interact with them, bring them nourishment ^[56] and also, at times, appeal for their help. Statues were not only erected in tombs, but also in temples to form a bond between the person and the deity. With the death of their owners such votive statues became in effect funerary statues.^[57]

Stelae

Stelae are slabs of stone with inscriptions or depictions which were erected for a variety of reasons. The original purpose of funerary stelae was the perpetuation of the name of the deceased. They came into use during the early dynastic period, the royal stelae bore just the king's name in a serekh and had been set up in niches inside the tomb. From the 3rd dynasty onward they were carved as False Doors, a symbolic gate through which the ka of the deceased could leave the tomb in order to strengthen itself on the food offerings set before it. The top of the stelae was often rounded, a feature which became more common since the Middle Kingdom.^[41] During Ramesside times funerary stelae often stood on either side of the tombs entrance.^[42]

Stela of Djet

The stelae became much more ornate in the course of history and were often decorated with depictions of the family of the deceased (cf. the stela of Mentuhotep), scenes of offerings ^[43] or–since the New Kingdom–adoration of funerary deities,^[44] or were inscribed with hieroglyphic texts. Among these were 'autobiographies',^[45] which were accounts of the life of the deceased showing them in the best possible light, thus furthering their chances in the afterlife.
As late as Roman times people still set up funerary stelae: in the northern part of the country often in an almost completely Hellenized form with Greek inscriptions and European-style depictions, while in the South ancient Egyptian traditions often still held sway, with winged solar disks displayed in the lunette and showing Egyptian deities underneath.^[46]

Ushabtis

Cf. the main article The ushabti: An existence of eternal servitude

Ushabtis were little, often mummiform, figurines, which were part of the grave goods since the Middle Kingdom. Mentioned first in the Coffin Texts they were magical alter egos of the deceased inscribed with his name and titles and from the late Middle Kingdom on often with spells as well. Later they came to be referred to as Hem, i.e. servants or slaves, in tune with their mission which was to fulfill all the duties the deceased was expected to perform in the beyond. The changing status from alter ego to slave brought about their proliferation with at times hundreds of ushabtis organized into teams of ten, supervised by overseer ushabtis and packed tightly into special boxes.

Ushabti Faience ushabti belonging to Wasirpahati
30th dynasty
It is holding a pick in its left hand and a seed basket is slung over its left-shoulder.
Source: Petrie Museum website, UC19659

Ushabtis were up to thirty centimetres tall and made of various materials. The most widespread among these was faience, which made the mass production of ushabtis during the first millennium BCE possible, when more people than ever could afford some kind of embalmment and hoped to be relieved of their netherworldly duties by an army of cheaply manufactured stand-ins.

Footnotes:
[3] Hodel-Hoenes 2000, p.115; Andrews 1994, pp.72f; R. Ferreira de Sousa, "The Heart Amulet in Ancient Egypt" in Goyon & Cardin 2007, pp.713ff
[4] Andrews 2004, pp.41f
[5] Andrews 2004, p.42
[6] Hodel-Hoenes 2000, p.128
[7] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, pp.59f.
[8] Bard & Shubert 1999, p.432
[9] Lucas & Harris 1962, p.90
[10] Stoddart 1990, p.171
[11] Hill 2004, p.115
[12] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.68
[13] Shaw & Nicholson, p.153; Corbelli 2006, p.49
[14] Loat 1904, Plate XVIII
[15] Loat 1904, p.2
[16] Loat 1904, Plate VII
[17] Meskell 1999, p.165
[18] Loat 1904, p.3
[19] Hari 1983
[20] Arnold et al. 2003, p.95
[21] Negev & Gibson 2005, p.342
[22] El-Shahawy et al. 2005, p.212
[23] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, pp.171f.
[24] El-Shahawy et al. 2005, p.212
[25] Dunand 2006, p.84
[26] Andrews 2004, p.74
[27] Shaw & Nicholson 1995,pp.137f.
[28] Bard & Shubert 1999, pp.266f.
[29] Bard & Shubert 1999, pp.238f.
[30] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.134
[31] Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae: Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Pyramidentexte => Unas-Pyramide => Sargkammer => Nordwand => 1. Register => PT 38
[32] David 1999, p.85
[33] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.209
[34] David 1999, p.154
[35] Yellin 1972, p.2881
[36] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.209
[37] Goyon & Cardin 2007, p.298
[38] Frankfort & Kramer 1978, p.392
[39] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, pp.211f.
[40] Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae: Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Grabinschriften => Achmim => Felsgräbernekropole von El-Hawawisch => einzelne Objekte => Särge im Kairo-Museum => Sarg der Henti/Henet, CG 28006 => Opferformeln und Opferliste => Opferliste (auf Seite 4) => 1. Register
[41] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.278
[42] Bard & Shubert 1999, p.811
[43] Robins 2008, p.143
[44] Robins 2008, p.255
[45] Bard & Shubert 1999, p.885
[46] Walker & Bierbrier 2000, p.141
[47] Assmann & Lorton 2005, pp.106f.
[48] El-Shahawy et al. 2005, p.73
[49] Bard & Shubert 1999, p.840
[50] Silverman 2003, p.136
[51] Assmann & Jenkins 2003, p.57
[52] Grajetzki 2003, p.121
[53] Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae: Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Grabinschriften => Gisa => Central Field (PM III, 230-293) => Mastaba des Wep-em-nefret => Opferkammer des Jby, Sohn des Wep-em-nefret => Ostwand => Texte
[54] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.12
[55] Robbins 2001, p.55
[56] Robbins 2001, p.43
[57] Robbins 2001, p.41
[58] Petrie Museum website: UC39590
[59] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.192
[61] Clarysse et al. 1998, p.477
[62] Clarysse et al. 1998,p.480
[63] Llewelyn 2001, p.30
[64] Scheidel 2001, Chapter One
[65] Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae: Demotische Textdatenbank, Akademie für Sprache und Literatur Mainz => religiöse Texte (s.a. magische Papyri!) => Harkness
[66] Petrie 1907, Chapter VI: The Soul-houses, Rifeh
[67] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.245

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		Index of topics
		Funerary practices: Preparations and burial
		The funeral cortège and the Opening of the Mouth ceremony
		Mummification
		Main index and search page

	Offsite links	(Opening in a new window)
	These are just suggestions for further reading. I do not assume any responsibility for the content of these sites

		[1] Ancient Egypt web site of Simon Hayter
		[2] Metropolitan Museum of Art
		[60] Petrie Museum: Mummy labels

	Feedback: please report broken links, mistakes - factual or otherwise, etc. to me. thanks.