Another early god was Amon, who originally was the local fertility god for Upper Egypt. In later years, Amon was regarded as the most important of all the gods and merged with the sun god as Amon-Ra. The most important Egyptian fertility god was Osiris, associated with the flooding of the Nile and good crops. In a replay of the Mesopotamian Dumuzi-Ianna myth, Osiris was married to his sister, Isis, killed by his jealous brother, Seth, and then restored to life by Isis. After that, Osiris became the god of the underworld but also continued to return to earth to bring about good harvests.
The outstanding characteristic of Egyptian religion, however, was its obsession with death. The Greek historian Herodotus called the Egyptians the most “religious” people he had ever encountered and was intrigued by their “incessant and elaborate religious rituals.” Classicist Edith Hamilton, who wrote extensively about early civilizations, called Egypt “a splendid empire—and death a foremost preoccupation”:
Countless numbers of human beings for countless numbers of centuries thought of death as that which was nearest and most familiar to them. It is an extraordinary circumstance which could be made credible by nothing less considerable than the immense mass of Egyptian art centered in the dead. To the Egyptian the enduring world of reality was not the one he walked in along the paths of every-day life but the one he should presently go to by the way of death.
In Egyptologist Salma Ikram’s view, “Death was part of the journey of life, with death marking a transition or transformation after which life continued in another form, the spiritual rather than the corporeal.”26
The earliest human burials in Egypt were simple graves in the desert with few grave goods. By 5,500 years ago many of the growing towns had large cemeteries, and burials were becoming more elaborate. Some burial chambers were “lined with brick and, depending on the status and wealth of the deceased, divided into sections for different grave goods.” An early tomb at Hierakonpolis was adorned with wall paintings depicting “scenes of fighting, hunting and river travel.”27
By 5,000 years ago, burials of the nobility and commoners had become separated, with royal cemeteries established at Abydos and Saqqara. One royal burial site was surrounded by walls 404 feet long, 210 feet across, and 36 feet high. At another, “tombs of the king’s servants were laid out in orderly rows around the royal burial.… It seems that the servants either volunteered to die or were forcibly put to death so that they could accompany the king to the Afterworld.”28
But the elaboration of burial sites was just beginning. It had become common in Egypt to build a rectangular stone shelter on top of royal graves, presumably as a monument of commemoration. Then, 4,600 years ago, a pharaoh named Zoser elaborated this idea at Saqqara by building a smaller stone shelter on top of the first, then a still smaller stone shelter on top of the second, and so on, until it was five stone shelters, or 200 feet, high, effectively having created the first Egyptian pyramid. Each succeeding pharaoh insisted on having a grander place for burial, thus setting off what became an outburst of pyramid construction. It culminated in the Great Pyramid of Giza, built by pharaoh Khufu 4,500 years ago. This pyramid covers 13 acres, is 481 feet high, and required over two million blocks of limestone, some weighing as much as 15 tons. Justifiably, it was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
What was the thinking behind such extraordinary elaborations of burial places? Fortunately, we have Egyptian written records that allow us to answer this question. Egyptians believed that people continued to live after death but in other forms. One form, the Ka, was identical to the body as it appeared in life. The other form, the Ba, was the person’s spirit or soul. After death Osiris, the god of the dead, put the person’s heart on a balance and weighed it against the principles of truth, wisdom, righteousness, and cosmic order. If the person had lived a good life, the heart was light and the scales balanced, thus assuring the person everlasting life in the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian term for the afterworld. If the person’s heart was heavy with sin, however, the scales would not balance and the person was denied everlasting life.
Because the person’s Ka was identical to their earthly form, mummification to preserve the earthly form was important. The science and art of mummification became highly developed in Egypt and is regarded as a hallmark of that civilization. In its most elaborate and expensive form, the mummification process could take three months or longer and was available only to royal and wealthy persons; others had to make do with partial mummification or, if they were poor, none at all.
For complete mummification, the brain was extracted by making a hole at the base of the skull; it was then discarded as unimportant. An incision was next made in the abdomen so that the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines could be removed. These were thought to be important for life, so they were placed in four Canopic jars, each associated with a specific god who looked after that organ. The Canopic jars were stored with the body. The heart was never removed, because it would be needed by Osiris for weighing on the scales.
The body was then saturated with a dehydrating solution, natron, for 70 days. At the end of that time, the body was desiccated and brittle. It was then carefully bandaged, using prescribed rituals, which took 15 days. If any body part broke off, such as a finger, it had to be replaced by an artificial one made for that occasion. It was very important that the body be whole and look as much as possible like the person when he or she was alive.29
In addition to human mummification, animals were also occasionally mummified. In some cases, this was done because the animal was a beloved pet of the deceased. In other cases, it was done to provide the deceased with animals to help them in the afterworld. In still other cases, the animal was mummified because it was thought to be an incarnation of one of the gods. Amun, for example, was thought to sometimes appear as a sheep, Hathor as a cow, and Horus as a falcon.30
Since Egyptians believed that life in the afterworld would be similar to life on earth, they made provisions to take their possessions with them. Thus, grave goods in Egypt were abundant and became more so in the later stages of the civilization. According to Carol Andrews’s book on the subject, grave goods for a wealthy individual could include “beds, complete with mattress and headrest, chairs and stools with cushions, boxes and chests, kilts, wigs and sandals, walking sticks and staffs of office, wine jars and draw-neck bags, jewellery of every kind, mirrors, stone vessels and fans, gaming boards, tables and stands.” In a valiant attempt to prove that you can take it with you, one royal mummy wore 22 bracelets and 27 rings.31
The magnitude of Egyptian preparations for the afterlife became widely known in 1922, when the intact tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered. Paintings on the walls of the tomb included Nut, the sky god, welcoming Tutankhamun to the Field of Reeds and Osiris, the god of death, embracing Tutankhamun. The tomb was overflowing with 40 cans of mummified food, 116 baskets of fruit, 40 jars of wine, inlaid chests filled with clothing, beds, chairs, weapons, and chariots. And in the center, like Russian dolls, was a stunning red quartzite sarcophagus, and within that a gilded coffin, and within that another gilded coffin, and within that a pure gold coffin, and within that Tutankhamun, lying peacefully behind a gold mask.
There were three kinds of grave goods associated with Egyptian burials. The first was food. Egyptians believed that even though the person was dead, their Ka still required sustenance. Thus food was left in the tomb and also placed on an offering table outside the tomb, where it could be accessed by the Ka. Periodically the food outside the tomb was replenished by the deceased person’s family. Some food bowls were inscribed with special requests directed to the deceased, asking them for assistance in worldly matters such as sickness or finances. The Ka of royal and wealthy persons ate well, as illustrated by food included in the tomb of a royal princess buried at Saqqara: quail, barley porridge, pigeon stew, grilled fish, a joint of beef and beef ribs, kidneys, bread, wine, fruit, cheese, and cake for dessert. The burial chamber of King Scorp
ion I, dated to 5,150 years ago, included seven hundred jars of wine, which had been imported from the Jordan Valley.32
The second type of grave goods associated with, and perhaps unique to, Egyptian burials was small statues called shabtis. In the earliest days of Egyptian burials, servants of royal and wealthy persons were buried in tombs next to the person they had served, thus allowing them to continue as servants in the afterworld. This practice was later replaced by burying statues of the servants, the shabtis, rather than the servants themselves; it was believed that the shabtis would come to life once they reached the afterworld. Initially only a few shabtis were included, but in later burials the number of shabtis was often 365, a servant for each day of the year. Many tombs included written instructions for the shabtis, reminding them of their duties: “O shabti, if your master is commanded to do any work in the realm of the dead: to prepare the fields, to irrigate the land or to convey sand from east to west; ‘Here I am’ you shall say.”33 The third type of grave goods associated with Egyptian burials was written instructions for the deceased. These instructions included advice such as how to resume breathing, how to put strength into one’s legs, directions for reaching the afterworld, and what to do once you arrive there. One collection of instructions found in many tombs is called The Book of the Dead, a sort of Frommer’s guidebook to the afterworld. Many of the elaborate painted scenes found on tomb walls are visual instructions for the deceased, even including instructions on how to make beer.
The Egyptian pantheon of gods included many who had responsibilities for the dead. In addition to Osiris, who presided over the afterworld, Hathor, a sky goddess, guided the dead to the afterworld, where they were received by Neith, the mother of all gods. The judgment of the dead, when the heart was weighed on a balance, was done by Osiris and Maat, the god of truth and justice, with Anubis, known as “Lord of the Mummy Wrappings,” holding the scale.
In Egypt, even more than in Mesopotamia, the sacred and secular were completely integrated. As anthropologist Bruce Trigger noted, the Egyptians had no word for “religion,” since “religion was inseparable from daily life.” The gods were regarded as all-powerful, and the pharaoh was the gods’ representative on earth. Later pharaohs even claimed to be living gods and were worshiped as such. The priests, who were responsible for the upkeep of the temples, became increasingly important as interpreters of the divine will. Thus, government was merely one aspect of religion, which dominated Egyptian life. To reach the Field of Reeds and share everlasting life with the gods was the goal of every Egyptian. Giant pyramids, such as those at Giza, and massive temples, such as those at Thebes, were visual proof that the present life was but a brief stopover on the road to eternal life.34
PAKISTAN
The early civilizations of Egypt and Pakistan had two things in common. Both were influenced in their development by ideas from Mesopotamia. And both had a written language, although the language of the latter has never been deciphered. This civilization flourished between 4,500 and 4,000 years ago and geographically is thought to have been the largest civilization at that time. It is usually referred to as the Indus, or Harappan, civilization, the latter being one of its major cities.
The Harappans are best known for their stunning engineering accomplishments. Mohenjo-daro, the largest city, had about 40,000 people, including potters, weavers, brick masons, goldsmiths, and architects. The streets were laid out in an orderly grid, wells and underground pipes carried water, and some houses “had indoor bathrooms connected by drains to a citywide sewage system.… The degree of planning that went into Indus Valley urban sites is unmatched among the earliest civilizations.” The Harappans also used standardized weights and measures and traded widely from Afghanistan to Mesopotamia for goods such as gold, copper, lead, lapis lazuli, turquoise, alabaster, and carnelian. The importation of agriculture into the Indus Valley was apparently a direct result of trade with Mesopotamia.35
In addition to the Harappan written script, many terracotta seals have been found with pictures of what appear to be deities. Of particular note is a three-faced man with a horned headdress, which has been widely assumed to represent an early version of Shiva, a god who is still worshiped by Hindus. Large numbers of female terracotta figures have also been interpreted as “popular representations of the Great Mother Goddess.” Sir Mortimer Wheeler, a British archeologist who carried out some of the definitive studies of the Harappan sites, was impressed with evidence of phallus-worship and speculated that, like Shiva, it had also been passed down to the early Hindus as linga-worship. Other suggestions of religious practice among the Harappans in Mohenjo-daro include small temples and a Great Bath that “was perhaps reserved for ritual washing by groups of priests.” At one time it was assumed that most of Harappan culture had been imported from Mesopotamia, a major trading partner, but more recent thinking suggests that many Harappan cultural elements were developed independently.36
Harappan burials took place both next to homes and in cemeteries. In some cases the person was cremated and the ashes buried. In graves exhumed to date, grave goods have included pottery, jewelry, axes and other weapons, and headrests. One Harappan denizen was buried with beads made of gold, onyx, jasper, and turquoise; another “went to rest in an elegant coffin made of elm and cedar from the distant Himalayas and rosewood from central India.” In two instances horses were buried, apparently next to their owners. It is thus apparent that Harappans had major concerns about the afterlife.37
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
Between 7,000 and 5,500 years ago, a civilization developed in southeastern Europe, primarily in regions we now call Bulgaria and Romania, that made it “among the most sophisticated and technologically advanced places in the world.” It is often referred to as the Old Europe culture. Agricultural villages with solidly built, two-story homes and herds of cattle, sheep, and pigs supported crafts persons, including those “among the most advanced metal artisans in the world.”38
One of the most ubiquitous findings from this culture is thousands of female figurines made of “clay, marble, bone, copper, and gold.” These were extensively studied by Marija Gimbutas, an archeologist at the University of California at Los Angeles who believed the figurines were variations on the “Great Goddess of Life, Death and Regeneration,” and she published widely on this theme. She also proposed a pantheon of gods to explain the other figurines. In recent years other archeologist have expressed skepticism of Gimbutas’s interpretation, but alternative explanations are still needed. The figurines are indeed enigmatic, many being accompanied by chairs for the figurines to sit upon and some found in clusters stored in pottery jars.39
Whatever the proper interpretation of the ubiquitous female figurines is, it is clear that people who lived in this culture had an intense interest in the afterlife. In 1972 in Varna, Bulgaria, an extraordinary Old Europe cemetery was uncovered by workers installing an underground electrical cable. Almost 300 burials dated to 6,500 years ago contained a wide array of grave goods, including the first artifacts made of gold found anywhere in the world. There were gold diadems, scepters, discs, pendants, beads, bracelets, armlets, pectoral plates, weapon handles, and even a gold penis cover. Four of the richest graves contained a total of 2,200 gold objects, together weighing almost 11 pounds. Of special interest were 35 graves that contained no body; some of these, however, included expensive grave goods, and three contained clay masks of human faces, embellished with golden earrings and diadems, carefully placed where the person’s head should have been. Could these graves have been for people who died elsewhere and whose body could not be recovered, as in the case of someone who died at sea? Whatever the explanation, the people who buried their dead at Varna clearly had an elaborate social organization and explicit ideas regarding the afterlife.40
The gold items found at Varna were the product of sophisticated metalwork. British anthropologist Colin Renfrew, who excavated the Varna cemetery, stated it as follows: “The development of metallurgy is on
e of the clearest cases in which essentially the same innovations were made repeatedly and independently, in different parts of the world at different times.… The smelting of ores to produce copper, or the alloying of copper with tin to produce bronze, are in most cases ultimately the same from the technical point of view wherever they are carried out.” Renfrew argued that metallurgy had developed independently at several widely disparate places, including southwest Asia, southeastern Europe (including Varna), southwest Europe in Iberia, China, and the Americas, suggesting parallel evolution.41
WESTERN EUROPE
The emergence of gods in western Europe is more ambiguous than in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Pakistan, or southeastern Europe. What is clear is that preoccupation with the afterlife was widespread. In France more than 10,000 years ago, a girl was buried decorated with approximately 1,500 shells and beads made from the teeth of deer and foxes and fish vertebra. Similarly, a young woman, decorated with “70 red deer canines,… some of which bore incised geometric designs,” was buried “lying under two large limestone slabs supported by five stone pillars.” These burials took place about 1,000 years after the last cave paintings were done in this region. In northern Russia a cemetery dated to more than 7,000 years ago had more than 400 graves containing 7,000 grave goods, including jewelry made from perforated animal teeth, figurines of animals and humans, and hunting implements.42
Beginning about 8,500 years ago, many early burials in western Europe were done using stones. At sites along the Atlantic coast, from Sweden to Portugal, large stones (megaliths) were fashioned to make human graves. In its simplest form, three or four large stones were covered with a capstone that could weigh up to 90 tons; this table-like grave is called a dolmen. In a more complex form, large stones were used to create a passage leading to a room where the deceased were placed; these are called passage or gallery graves, depending on their shape. The entire structure was then often covered with smaller stones, creating a stone hill called a cairn. France has at least 6,000 such megalithic tombs, Denmark and southern Sweden have over 5,000, and Ireland has over 1,200 of these tombs.43
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