This section of the exhibition focuses on the beliefs in the afterlife
and on funerary rites of the Egyptians. Preparations of the "house of eternity",
a carefully arranged and furnished tomb, were a condition for a proper
life after death. The tomb was preferably hewn in the rock or built of
stone, or at least furnished in stone elements like a so-called false door
[
01] that enabled the
spirit of the dead to go out of the tomb into the world of living, or an
offering table [
02], where
the offerings for the dead were placed. The material "seat" of
the dead person's soul was the mummy, a properly prepared body. The mummification
process was patronised by Anubis, the god and custodian of the necropolis
and "the guide of souls" [
03],
[
04]. During the embalming
the intestines were taken out of the body and preserved in so-called canopic
vessels [
05], [
06],
[
07], [
08].
The mummy, provided with a funerary mask [
09],
[
10], [
11],
[
12], was placed in a
stone coffin (a sarcophagus) [
13],
a wooden one [
14], [
15],
[
17] or a cartonnage
[
16], with added amulets
[
18], [
19],
[
20], [
21],
[
22], [
23]
and papyri supposed to enable the difficult journey to the world of the
dead [
24], [
25],
[
26]. The funerary equipment
included the
ushebti figurines,
expected to help the dead in their work in the next world [
27],
[
28], [
29],
[
30], [
31].
