DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12249#0090
CHARACTER OF THE SEPULCHRAL DEPOSITS. 59
of the finest linen, bearing ornaments of gold or
precious stones, chiefly in the form of religious symbols,
and accompanied by rolls of papyrus inscribed with
ritualistic guidance for the soul's career, were deposited
in admirably chiselled sarcophagi of alabaster or gra-
nite, covered with incised religious effigies and in-
scriptions. In minor tombs the occupants had been
similarly treated, but more or less according to a
correspondingly descending or varying scale. The pre-
servative processes, of which there were several, might
be less delicate; the bandages coarser; the ornaments,
of pebble or pottery; the papyrus, diminished in size
or altogether wanting; the coffins, of wood shaped
usually in close resemblance to the contour of the
swathed mummy within, and brightly painted both
inside and outside with sacred figures and columns of
hieroglyphic texts. In these are entered the name
and position of the deceased with various prayers, of
which this to Osiris is one of the most important,
"That he may be allowed to enter into the union,
whereby he may see as the devout souls see, hear
as they hear, sit as they sit." *
But besides the dead thus carefully disposed of
and accompanied, as they frequently were, by four
vases containing the principal viscera, closed by covers
representing the heads of the four minor deities or
* Lepsius, Todtenbuch, S. 13 ; cf. Duncker, Geschichte des Alter-
tkumt, vol. i. p. 75.
of the finest linen, bearing ornaments of gold or
precious stones, chiefly in the form of religious symbols,
and accompanied by rolls of papyrus inscribed with
ritualistic guidance for the soul's career, were deposited
in admirably chiselled sarcophagi of alabaster or gra-
nite, covered with incised religious effigies and in-
scriptions. In minor tombs the occupants had been
similarly treated, but more or less according to a
correspondingly descending or varying scale. The pre-
servative processes, of which there were several, might
be less delicate; the bandages coarser; the ornaments,
of pebble or pottery; the papyrus, diminished in size
or altogether wanting; the coffins, of wood shaped
usually in close resemblance to the contour of the
swathed mummy within, and brightly painted both
inside and outside with sacred figures and columns of
hieroglyphic texts. In these are entered the name
and position of the deceased with various prayers, of
which this to Osiris is one of the most important,
"That he may be allowed to enter into the union,
whereby he may see as the devout souls see, hear
as they hear, sit as they sit." *
But besides the dead thus carefully disposed of
and accompanied, as they frequently were, by four
vases containing the principal viscera, closed by covers
representing the heads of the four minor deities or
* Lepsius, Todtenbuch, S. 13 ; cf. Duncker, Geschichte des Alter-
tkumt, vol. i. p. 75.