[Last modified: March, 20 2019 12:33 PM]
Worked stone fragment from one of the great pyramids of Giza, Egypt. It was an outer facing stone of the second largest of the pyramids, of the pharaoh Khafre, whose tomb lays within the pyramid.
The stone is made of limestone, quarried from Tura, near modern day Cairo. Tura limestone was prized for it’s purity and reflective properties. When polished, the stone would gleam white in the sun.
The stone fragment was once a piece of the outer facing of the Pyramid of Khafre in Egypt, one of the Great Pyramids of Gizeh, the grandest of the tombs of Pharaohs.
The pyramids served both symbolic and practical purposes. It was important that the body was preserved intact in ancient Egypt, as it was believed that the soul would frequently return to the body throughout the afterlife. Dismemberment was feared, with decapitation after death known as a second death. Therefore, tombs also offered protection from this possibility, ensuring the integrity of the body in an ideal state, undisturbed after death. While passage to the afterlife was initially believed to be only for pharaohs, this expanded over time to include all of those in Egypt.
Books of the dead are collections of texts produced in ancient Egypt, intended as a guide to navigate the journey to the afterlife, following death. These ‘books’ were printed on papyrus and could be up to 14 feet long and were likely kept as a scroll, rather than a traditional book.
The texts contained a number of spells for different purposes. Some will have been for protection from obstacles or danger and others relate to protection of certain parts of the deceased. There are nearly 200 of these spells known, with books of the dead containing a variety that the deceased thought may be needed.
Following successful navigation of the underworld, the deceased would be judged, by the weighing of their heart by the god Osiris. If the heart balanced against the weight of a feather, the dead had led a good life and would be permitted into the afterlife.