Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    were pictures and writing, descriptive of the past or future life of the departed, and relating to gods and pious duties. These outer tombs, as remarked by Mr. Fergusson, are truncated pyramids. They are found in groups, and are usually associated with a pyramid, which may be assumed as the centre of the Necropolis. While we have no remains of dwellings, and scarcely a ruin of an ancient palace, the tombs were constructed of such material, and were of so solid a character, as to be, in many cases, as perfect as when formed five or six thousand years ago. Some of these structures covered a large area. One has been found 400 feet in length, and another 320. The Egyptians lived, so to speak, in their tombs. The labour and wealth thus expended upon the construction and adornment of the sepulchre were not mere evidences of luxury and vainglory, but the tokens of the deepest in- terest in the Unseen World, not less than of respect and affection for the departed one. It was religious feeling more than ostentatious pride that originated these magnifi- cent and durable abodes. The mastaba above was not only decorated by paintings and illuminated by hieroglyphics, but furnished with seats, fauteuils, tables, etc. Statues of the deceased were occa- sionally deposited therein. Children’s toys, female orna- ments, men’s tools or emblems of callings, are equally conspicuous. While the entrance door was to the east, a false door, in the chief place of the chamber, held the steles giving the records of the deceased, inscribed on those stone tablets. One entered from the east to look to the west, the supposed place for the dead, the setting station of the sun. But, like as the sun reappeared in the east, so would the beloved one, temporarily lost to view in the 'western shades, reappear with the celestial sun in the glow- ing east of returning life and day.