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The Book Of The Dead: Ancient Egyptian Religion And Art

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Could ancient Egypt’s religion have survived for such a long time if it did not incorporate artwork? While that remains unknown, it is still quite clear that art played a big role in the religion of ancient Egypt. Whether it be through wall monuments, the Book of the Dead, the mummification process or something else, these two things are closely related to each other. The religion in ancient Egypt was closely centered around the different gods and the afterlife, and art reflected this. Ancient Egyptians associated many different traits that animals had with attributes of the gods, which lead to them being depicted with the heads of animals. The gods were shown in all types of artwork, a common one being narrative art, which told a story often honouring the achievements of someone. The style of art in Egypt was also created to appease the gods. People were drawn in both side and front perspectives at the same time to show the gods the most of their bodies that they could, and pharaohs and gods were also much larger than other figures to highlight their significance. …show more content…
The Book of the Dead originated from the Pyramid Texts, which had the same purpose, only it was reserved for the king and his family. Eventually it evolved so that anyone who could pay for it could have spells from the Book of the Dead in their death ritual. A very famous scroll from the Book of the Dead, it the last judgement of Hunefer. It illustrates Hunefer’s journey into the underworld, first getting his heart weighed by Anubis, god of mummification, to see if he is pure. Then Hunefer meets Osiris, the god of the underworld, portrayed behind a lotus, which was a symbol of eternal life. All of this was created on a piece of papyrus with beautiful pictures and

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