Study Guide Day 11: Middle Kingdom Funerary Texts and Practices

Important names, terms, and concepts

(Some of these will be from lecture)

Abydos
Osiris in the MK
Coffin texts
shabti figures
canopic jars
scarabs
mummification practices
Execration texts -- from last time

Discussion Questions

The author of this chapter of your textbook, and many other Egyptologists, have analyzed funerary texts and practices from the Middle Kingdom and have argued that they point to a "democratization" of life in this period, and particularly with views about the afterlife. This is seen as a shift from the classical Old Kingdom views. What examples from the funerary texts in Lichtheim can you find to support this view? Are there other shifts in attitudes and expectations about the afterlife that you see here or in the textbook?

Some scholars characterize the "Dispute between a Man and his Ba" as a text about suicide. Do you agree or not, and why? What do you think the text is trying to say about death and the afterlife? Do you think the view(s) expressed in the text is/are typically "Egyptian"?

How is Middle Kingdom religiosity expressed in the hymns? To what extent do you agree with what I argued in class last time, about hymns being used to express emotion and personal relationships with the object being venerated in the hymn?