Eternal Egypt : Art and the Afterlife

Mummies as Statues

Egyptians mummified people because they believed that the deceased could be reborn in the Afterworld only if the body were kept intact. The mummy’s elaborately decorated coverings provided both physical and magical protection through the symbolic images that ornamented them.

Human-shaped coffins, mummy masks, and mummies functioned together like statues or formalized representations of the deceased. They could receive offerings from the family and funerary priests on behalf of the person’s spirit.

By the New Kingdom, the coffin itself (with the mummy inside) stood upright during the last rites given outside the tomb. Like other statues, it required a base and sometimes a back pillar for support.

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