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Anubis Tending to a Mummy
A relief depicting the god Anubis attending to the mummy of a worker, identified as either Amennakht or Nebenmaat. The relief, and the tomb it is in, date to the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE). From the necropolis at Deir el-Medina. Thebes, Egypt.
Questions & Answers
How did the ancient Egyptians view death and the afterlife?
- The ancient Egyptians viewed death as a transition of the soul from the earthly plane to the next realm. Life was understood as an eternal journey, only part of which was lived on earth.
What is the afterlife called in ancient Egypt?
- The afterlife in ancient Egypt was known as the Field of Reeds and was understood as a mirror image of one's life on earth where one would live in the presence of the gods.
Who was the Judge of the Dead in ancient Egypt?
- The god Osiris was the Judge of the Dead in ancient Egypt.
What is the Egyptian Book of the Dead?
- The Egyptian Book of the Dead is an instruction manual for the soul after death to help it navigate the afterlife and find its way to the paradise of the Field of Reeds. It is not in any way the "Egyptian Bible."
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License & Copyright
This image was first published on Flickr.
Original image by Jean Robert Thibault. Uploaded by Arienne King, published on 04 September 2020. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
