Magic, judgement and the
journey to the afterlife
The Egyptian Book of the Dead consists of scrolls
of papyrus (a plant made into flattened strips on
which to write) containing more than 200 spells.
These spells were like good wishes or prayers to
help the deceased person survive the journey to the
afterlife. The Egyptians believed this journey was
full of dangers, such as poisonous snakes, fire-filled
lakes and even executioners. Knowing the correct
spells was an important safeguard, so they were
often recorded on coffins.
During the funeral service at the tomb, a priest
conducted the important ceremony called the
‘Opening of the Mouth’. To do this, his attendants
placed the coffin in an upright position. The priest
then touched the ears, eyes, mouth, nose, legs
and arms of the image painted on it. This ritual
symbolically ‘freed’ the person’s senses so that he/
she would be able to hear, see, breathe, speak, smell
and generally come to life again.
The most important test of the journey to the
afterlife was the ‘weighing of the heart’ held in the
Hall of Two Truths. People believed that the gods put
the dead person’s heart on a balance and weighed it
against the feather representing Ma’at, the goddess
of justice. The heart had to weigh less than the
feather to allow the person into the afterlife. If the
heart was heavier than Ma’at’s feather, the person
would be sent to be eaten by the monster Ammit,
a word meaning ‘devourer’ or ‘bone-eater’. Ammit
had the head of a crocodile. From the front, she had
the body of a lion and from the rear the body of a
hippopotamus.
Working historically
One of the skills of a historian is locating
information in a source and identifying the
meaning of a source.
It would be hard for you to just look at source 2 and
magically come up with its meaning. You need to look,
think and use your knowledge of Egyptian gods and
the journey to the afterlife. Doing this helps you to:
• locate important information in the source and
• identify the source’s meaning.
The annotations above and below source 2 provide
an example of this.
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source 2 An illustration from The Papyrus of Hunefer, created c.1285 BC, showing different scenes from the
journey to the afterlife
The dead man, Hunefer,
offers gifts to the gods.
The god Anubis Hunefer s
leads Hunefer to heart
the weighing of
the heart.
44
retroactive 1
Fourteen judges to whom Hunefer will explain his life.
Some judges hold the ankh (symbol of life).
Anubis weighs the
heart against the
feather of justice.
Ammit is ready to
eat the heart if it
weighs more than
the feather.
The god
Thoth is
ready to
record the
decision.
The god Horus leads
the dead person to
the afterlife.
The four sons
of Horus atop
a lotus flower.
Their role was
to protect the
dead persons
organs.
The god Osiris, his
wife Isis (in red) and
her sister Nepthys (in
green) are ready to
welcome Hunefer to
the afterlife.