Lesson video

Hello, everyone, and welcome to lesson eight of Ancient Egypt.

My name is Mrs. Tipping, and today we are going to tackle the question: Where did the Ancient Egyptians believe they would go after death? And in this lesson, we will learn about the afterlife and the process of mummification.

So let's get started.

So, for this lesson, we need you to be sat somewhere comfortable so that you can capture all of the knowledge from this lesson, and you're going to need a couple of things.

You're going to need an exercise book or paper, a pencil or pen, and your fantastic brain switched on, ready to learn.

So if you haven't got any of those things, quickly go and grab them, and we can get started.

That was quick, well done.

Okay, let's go through the lesson structure.

I'm going to start with some key words, and then we're going to look at what the afterlife was.

Then we're going to explore the Hall of Truth, and then we're going to go through the process of mummification and how long that took.

And we will end our lesson with an end of lesson quiz.

Okay, so let's start with some key words.

The first word is canopic jars, so two words actually.

Canopic jars, so my turn, your turn.

Canopic jars.

Canopic jars are what the Ancient Egyptians used to put the organs inside during the mummification process.

So they were jars they would put the organs like the liver and the lungs inside.

The second word is natron.

My turn, your turn, natron.

Natron is a type of salt the Ancient Egyptians used to dry the body during mummification.

The third word is sarcophagus.

My turn, your turn, sarcophagus.

A sarcophagus is a stone coffin that was usually decorated with sculpture and writing.

And the last word is embalmers.

My turn, your turn, embalmers.

Embalmers prepared the body so it would preserve and not rot during the mummification process.

So let's take a look at what the afterlife is.

It is suggested that the average Ancient Egyptian lived to be around 40 years old, at best.

So it's not very old, is it? They believed that there was a life beyond death.

So, that was called the afterlife.

They strongly believed in preserving the body and providing the dead with all the things that they would need to live in the next world, to live in the afterlife.

To them, death was just a moment in life, like a pause, and if the funeral practises were followed correctly, the dead could move on to the next world and live without pain in the Field of Reeds.

So the Ancient Egyptians believed death was not the end.

Is that true or false? Have a little think, shout out your answer or write it down.

Was that true or false? Death was not the end for the Ancient Egyptians.

Did they believe that? Yes, they did.

It is true.

The Ancient Egyptians believed death was just a moment in life, a pause, and if the funeral practises were followed correctly, they could move on to the world afterwards which was called the Field of Reeds.

Now, there was a lot of preparation involved in securing a person's place into the Field of Reeds.

So to get there, you had to do some things.

And there were two important aspects to everyone, and that was the ka and the ba.

The ka was a person's life force and the ba was their soul.

And the Ancient Egyptians had to work really hard to make sure that their soul was light.

So I'd like you to pause the video now just to have a go at this task.

Answer the following questions, and when you're done, restart the video.

Okay, let's take a look at the answers.

So, the name of the place that the ancient Egyptians would go after death is the Field of Reeds.

What did they do to the body for the afterlife? Well, they preserved it.

And what was a person's ba? It was their soul.

Good job if you got all of those correct.

Now let's explore the Hall of Truth.

So Anubis, god of the dead, would lead the Ancient Egyptians to the Hall of Truth.

Here, they would stand in front of Osiris, god of the Underworld, and Thoth, god of scribes, and some golden scales.

And the goddess Ma'at and 42 judges would also be there to judge the person's fate.

So you can see in this picture here, that we have the set of scales, we can see Anubis on this side who is holding the hand of the Ancient Egyptian, and we've got Thoth writing, and we can't quite see Osiris in this image, but he would have been there.

Now, which god led the Ancient Egyptians to the Hall of Truth? Was it A, Anubis, B, Thoth, C, Osiris, or D, Ra? Have a think, point to your answer or say it out loud or write it down, whichever you prefer.

Which god led the Ancient Egyptians to the Hall of Truth? The answer is A, Anubis, the god of the dead.

Now, it was important for the Ancient Egyptians people to do many good deeds so their heart was light.

So they do lots of good things so that their heart was light.

This was because when the person died, Osiris weighed the heart against a feather from Ma'at's headdress.

Now, Ma'at was the goddess of justice.

Now, the feather of truth was what it was weighed against.

So if it balanced, then it meant that the person was truthful and pure and had led a good life.

Now, the 42 judges, and you can see them all on the top row there, they had to agree that that person had led a good life.

If it balanced, the person could pass on to the Field of Reeds to the afterlife.

Now, the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, which is a collection of spells that allowed the soul of the dead to navigate, to move through the afterlife.

No two copies of those books are the same and they were created especially for individuals who could buy them, so could help them through that passage.

So, I'd like you to pause the video now and have a go at this task.

I'd like you to describe what happens if the Ancient Egyptian's heart was light.

So you could start your answer with "If the Ancient Egyptian's heart was light.

." And then explain what happened.

And restart the video when you're finished.

Okay, here's an example of what you could have written: If the Ancient Egyptian's heart was light then it was placed on the scales, it would balance with the feather.

The 42 judges had to agree that the person was pure and truthful.

Then the person could move on to the afterlife to the Field of Reeds.

Well done if you've got something similar.

Now, we've seen what happens when the heart was light for the Ancient Egyptians.

But if the heart was heavy with bad deeds, if an Egyptian had not led a very good life and have committed lots of sins, then their heart would not weigh and balance against the feather.

And if it was too heavy, it would be tossed aside for a Ammut to eat.

Now, Ammut was the soul eater.

He's the one in the middle of the picture with the green face that looks like a crocodile.

And he had the body of a leopard at the front and a rhino at the back, so a very strange creature.

And the person would not live on in the afterlife.

So I'd like you to pause the video now and describe what happened if the Ancient Egyptian's heart was not light.

So you could start with "If the Ancient Egyptian's heart was not light.

." And then finish off the rest of that sentence on what would happen.

And then restart the video once you finished.

Okay, so your answer might look a little bit like this: If the Ancient Egyptian's heart was not light, then it would be thrown aside and the soul eater Ammut would eat it.

The person would not move on to the afterlife.

Now let's take a look at the process of mummification.

Mummification took around 70 days.

After the death, the pharaohs of Egypt were usually mummified and buried in elaborate tombs.

Members of the nobility and officials often receive the same treatment, and occasionally some common people.

However, the process was an expensive one.

And so, everyday people could not really afford it.

How long did the mummification process take? Let's see if we remember.

Was it A, 90 days, B, 100 days, C, 70 days, or D, 10 days? Have a little think, point to your answer on screen or say it out loud.

It was C, 70 days.

So it took a long time for the mummification process.

Now, firstly, the body was washed, either with water from the Nile or with wine.

Now, the Egyptians removed the brain using a long hook, which they inserted up the nose to pull the brain out.

Now, that's because they thought the brain was useless.

They thought that the heart was much more important.

Now after the organs, such as the stomach, liver, and lungs and intestines were all taken out as well, they were placed in canopic jars.

And you can see the picture of canopic jars on the screen and they had the different heads of the gods on top.

So quite beautiful, beautifully made jars.

Now, the only organ that was left in place was the heart because they believed it was the centre of a person's being and intelligence, so a really important part of the body.

The embalmers next removed all the moisture from the body.

They did this by covering the body with natron, which is a type of salt, which has great drying properties.

So you can see here, in this diagram, the salt all over the body.

Now, they would also put natron packets inside the body as well to make sure it was nice and dry.

If the body wasn't dry, that's what would have made it rot.

Now, the next thing that they did was wrap the body in hundreds of yards of linen.

Now, the priests carefully wound the long strips around every single part of the body, sometimes wrapping each individual finger and toe before wrapping the entire hand.

So they were really really careful when they did this.

Now, to protect the dead, they also placed amulets in between the wrappings, and sometimes prayers and words written on some strips of the linen to protect the dead on their journey.

Now, after the body was wrapped in lots of layers of linen, a mask was put over their face and they were placed into a casket.

And lastly, they were put into a sarcophagus, which was a beautifully decorated coffin.

So, I'd like you to pause your video now and have a go at this task.

I'd like you to draw and summarise the six stages of mummification.

So, I've got some key words down here for you so I'd like you to do six different boxes, and then the first word, these words remind you of what happens at each stage.

So the first word is wash.

The second word is canopic jars.

The third word is natron.

The fourth word is linen.

The fifth word is amulets, and the final word is sarcophagus.

So what happens at each of those stages? Then restart once you're finished.

Okay, hopefully your diagram or your drawing looks a little bit like this.

So first of all, the body was washed.

Then the organs were removed and put into the canopic jars.

Then the body was dried using natron, which is the third stage.

Then the fourth stage is that the body is wrapped in linen.

Then the fifth stage is that amulets were wrapped in between the wrappings of linen to protect the body.

And then finally, the body was placed in a sarcophagus, a coffin.

Fantastic work today, well done.

We have got through lots of learning and you have worked really hard.

Now, I'm hoping to see you in your next Ancient Egyptian lesson soon.

And until then, goodbye!.