To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasure from the Brooklyn Museum Review

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(More customer reviews)The notable Brooklyn Museum collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts serves as a steppingstone to a look at the burial practices, concerns, and options of ordinary ancient Egyptians. Referring only briefly to the Egyptians' belief in the afterlife which has been covered many other places, this work is decidedly different in that it concerns primarily practical decisions and burial options facing average Egyptians. Thus it brings in material which most readers will find entirely new on the always-fetching subject of Egyptian religion and burial customs.
The funeral practices of the middle-class and poor Egyptians are not commonly known as are those of Egyptian royalty and upper class because the elaborate, often golden, artifacts of the latter and the large amount of statues, amulets, and possessions in their tombs have understandably attracted the most attention of the public. Besides, the metals and other materials of the tombs of royalty and upper classes did not deteriorate so much over time as the wooden sarcophagi, identification tags, and crudely-made base metal and stone artifacts which the lower classes used because they could afford them. Nonetheless, enough of the middle- and lower-class artifacts have survived for archaeologists, historians, and curators such as Bleiberg to realize differences in funeral practices.
Royalty or commoner, ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. Funeral practices reflected this belief according to an individual's means. Surviving relatives would make the practical decisions about the elaborateness of a funeral, the quality of embalming, type of sarcophagus, and crafted and personal items to be buried in the tomb. Upper classes for example would usually have their internal organs removed and placed in stone jars; whereas middle and lower classes would have injected into them a fluid which would liquify their organs, thus avoiding the expense of their removal and storage. Bleiberg delves into the realities and practices of funeral practices of average Egyptians to the point of giving costs for different kinds of coffins. In his reader-friendly visual and writing style, this author draws the curtain back on a fascinating area of ancient Egyptian society.

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This fascinating new book draws on important ancient Egyptian monuments from the superb collection of the Brooklyn Museum to illustrate Egyptian strategies for defeating death and living forever.

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