DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4671#0038
22
THE FUNERAL OF AN EGYPTIAN.
and Peta-Amen-apt may be taken as excellent
examples.
Excavations and discoveries in Egypt have shown
that tombs were used over and over again, and that
it is possible to find pottery and other objects, which
were made at a period after B.C. 550, in a tomb, the
walls of which are covered with inscriptions and
scenes which prove that it was made for an ancient
Egyptian official who lived during the rule of the
Vlth dynasty, some 3000 years before. It seems to
have been the custom not to erase the inscriptions,
etc., provided for the first occupant of a tomb, but
there is no doubt that his body was removed to
another place, and so made way for a successor.
The circumstances under which such removals were
made are not known, but it is probable that the
priests by right took possession of tombs upon the
extinction of the family to which the dead who were
buried in them belonged, or by purchase when the
surviving relatives could not afford to pay for the
customary funereal offerings, which it was their duty
to present at certain seasons of the year. Another
danger which menaced the peace of the occupant
of the tomb arose from thieves, who if they did
nothing worse, forced open the coffin and carried off
all objects made of gold or precious stones, and such
THE FUNERAL OF AN EGYPTIAN.
and Peta-Amen-apt may be taken as excellent
examples.
Excavations and discoveries in Egypt have shown
that tombs were used over and over again, and that
it is possible to find pottery and other objects, which
were made at a period after B.C. 550, in a tomb, the
walls of which are covered with inscriptions and
scenes which prove that it was made for an ancient
Egyptian official who lived during the rule of the
Vlth dynasty, some 3000 years before. It seems to
have been the custom not to erase the inscriptions,
etc., provided for the first occupant of a tomb, but
there is no doubt that his body was removed to
another place, and so made way for a successor.
The circumstances under which such removals were
made are not known, but it is probable that the
priests by right took possession of tombs upon the
extinction of the family to which the dead who were
buried in them belonged, or by purchase when the
surviving relatives could not afford to pay for the
customary funereal offerings, which it was their duty
to present at certain seasons of the year. Another
danger which menaced the peace of the occupant
of the tomb arose from thieves, who if they did
nothing worse, forced open the coffin and carried off
all objects made of gold or precious stones, and such