The oldest graves in the world are 400,000 years old. They were discovered near Beijing in China. It was, however, the Neanderthal people, living between 100,000 and 30,000 years ago, who showed the first signs of a belief in life after death.
The Neanderthals buried their dead inside the caves they lived in, often close to the fire. The intention was to keep their dead relatives warm and preserve signs of life for as long as possible. Tools and weapons were placed in the graves, as well as food, including joints of meat. The Neanderthals clearly believed that the dead had needs similar to those of the living. The corpses were often arranged to look like they were sleeping, especially when whole families were buried together. Some were interred with their knees drawn up to their chin, like babies waiting to be reborn.
The Land of No Return
The Mesopotamians did not believe in rebirth. Instead they believed that everyone, good and bad, faced the same terrible fate after death. The dead went to live in a dark place called the underworld, or "the land of no return."
The gate to the underworld was guarded by scorpion people, who made sure no one living could enter to save friends or relatives. A clerk named Dimpimekug wrote down the names of all new arrivals in the Book of the Dead. The land of no return was built inside a mountain, where it was too dark to see anything. The people living there ate dust or clay and wore wings instead of clothes.
The eternal darkness of the land awaiting them did not stop the Mesopotamian kings from trying to lead a privileged life beyond the grave. They were buried in huge underground warrens surrounded by the belongings they might need in the underworld. Their bodies were laid out in a comfortable sleeping position. The slaves and servants of the royal household were buried with them in a kneeling position, ready to spring to attention when they and their masters woke up.
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THE COLORS OF DEATH |
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The Neanderthals sprinkled red ocher on the bodies of the dead. The color was a symbol of warmth and life. Egyptians considered black the color of life because it was the color of Nile mud, the substance that gave Egypt its life. Anubis, the god of mummification, was always drawn in black to remind people of what he stood for. The Greeks wore black when they were in mourning. The Romans held their funerals in the dark of night. However, the ancient Hebrews wrapped their dead in white linen, a symbol of purity and humility. White remains the traditional color of mourning in China and Japan.
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The Kingdom of Osiris
The Egyptian view of life after death was far more hopeful. They believed that good people went to live in the kingdom of Osiris, a wonderful world that was a mirror image of Egypt itself.
To make sure that a person enjoyed the afterlife, the Egyptians buried their dead with food, drink, clothing, jewelry, and anything else that had brought pleasure in life. Egyptian embalmers took great care to preserve the corpse. The brain was removed and apparently discarded, and the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines were placed in special canopic jars. The heart was left in the body to be weighed by the gods. The body was dried out with natron salt and wrapped in bandages to make a mummy.
Before the burial the Egyptian priests performed a ceremony called "the opening of the mouth" so that the dead person could speak again in the afterlife and use all five senses. The mummy was then sealed in a coffin called a sarcophagus and buried on the west bank of the Nile facing east toward the rising sun to help his or her spirit to be reborn.
To join the gods, a dead Egyptian person had to go through an underworld called Duat, which was full of tests and obstacles that had to be overcome. The final challenge took place in the Hall of Two Truths, where the gods weighed the dead person’s heart against a magical feather. If the heart and feather balanced, the person was judged to have led a good life, and he or she was allowed to join the great god Osiris in his kingdom. If the person failed because their heart was heavy with sin, the heart was eaten by a monster called Ammut.
