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Mosaic Musings...interactive poetry reviews _ Words of Wisdom -> Rosetta Stone _ Did you know?
Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Aug 4 03, 16:40
Ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of intelligence and emotion. They also thought so little of the brain that during mummification, they removed the brain entirely from bodies.
Posted by: Nefertiti Aug 5 03, 14:34
AH! Cleo, thanks for clearing that up! It sure explains a lot 0 like this rager headache and why I can't remember anything!!!!
Tee-hee!
Big Hugs,
Nef
Posted by: Don Aug 8 03, 19:38
Didn't they also remove other organs that easily decayed within corpse? Didn't they save all the parts in canopic jars?
I think they had the correct idea about the brain being a minor player... :)
:)....Don
Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Aug 10 03, 06:14
I think they had the correct idea about the brain being a minor player... :)
:)....Don
Preparation for the afterlife was key to the religious beliefs of Ancient Egypt.The Egyptians believed that the mummified body was the home for the soul or spirit. If the body was destroyed, the spirit might be lost. The idea of "spirit" was complex involving really three spirits: the ka, ba, and akh. The ka, a "double" of the person, would remain in the tomb and needed the offerings and objects there. The ba, or "soul", was free to fly out of the tomb and return to it. And it was the akh, perhaps translated as "spirit", which had to travel through the Underworld to the Final Judgment and entrance to the Afterlife. To the Egyptian, all three were essential.
Preserving the body in death was critical to keeping the soul alive. Mummification was a ritualistic process (complex and long - 70 days) performed by trained priests in the skills of embalming. The process was done in a separate workshop outside of the town reserved as a 'clean place' called a 'wabet'.
Once the organs were removed, they were placed in canopic jars. These jars were usually carved out of alabaster and inscribed with spells that would one day enable the organs to rejoin the body upon it's resurrection.
The organs that were placed in the jars include: stomach, lungs, intestines, and liver. Once placed inside the jars, each organ was protected by the one of sons of Horus whose head graced the lid.
The brain was removed and thrown away and the heart was left in place because later in the underworld Anubis would weigh it and guide the soul through the underworld.
Can you believe they threw the brain away Don?
~Lori
Posted by: Don Aug 10 03, 07:51
No brain? They saved the stomach and intestines but not the brain? I guess it is a case of eating without thinking about it.
As you describe the scene the rituals were so precise that rote memory is all that was required.
"Clean Place" indeed. The chemicals alone would have raised a stench beyond polite society acceptance. This single detail is reason enough to locate the facility far away. As the cliche goes regarding giant pyramid construction, "They had lots of time," we can say of the Ancient Egyptians, "They had lots of space."
We see small canopic jars shown in magazines, museums, and movies. The intestines are extremely long and even dried into compact state seem more volume than one of those small jars provide.
Present cremation practice essentially removes all the water and other fluids from our body. Total remains would easily fit into one of their small sacred genie bottles.
Joking, if they cremated as we do, when the souls returned to find their personal body, one ash would look like another ash.
How many sons of Horus?
This number could be a guide, or a checksum, of equal number of organs stored in canopic containers.
What do you say?
Don
Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Aug 10 03, 08:34
Clever!
"Clean Place" indeed. The chemicals alone would have raised a stench beyond polite society acceptance. This single detail is reason enough to locate the facility far away. As the cliche goes regarding giant pyramid construction, "They had lots of time," we can say of the Ancient Egyptians, "They had lots of space."
LOL! This is very true indeed! 
We see small canopic jars shown in magazines, museums, and movies. The intestines are extremely long and even dried into compact state seem more volume than one of those small jars provide. Present cremation practice essentially removes all the water and other fluids from our body. Total remains would easily fit into one of their small sacred genie bottles.
Absolutely - which is part of the reason for the 70 day ritual. :)
Joking, if they cremated as we do, when the souls returned to find their personal body, one ash would look like another ash.
Good question! Hmmmmm... 
How many sons of Horus? This number could be a guide, or a checksum, of equal number of organs stored in canopic containers.
What do you say?
Don
LOL Don! 
How many sons of Horus are there? This number could be a guide, or a checksum, of equal number of organs stored in canopic containers.
There are FOUR sons of Horus - Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef and Kebehsenuef, who were linked with the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines respectively, though sometimes the associations of Hapy and Duamutef are found switched about.
Between the early 18th Dynasty and the middle 19th Dynasty, their heads were depicted differently on the canopic jars, with Imsety's head remaining human, while Hapy took on the appearance of an Ape, Duamutef that of a Jackal, and Kebeshsenuef that of a falcon.
In the Book of the Dead, we find the following passages:
Spell 137 - "O sons of Horus, Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, Kebehsenuef: as you spread your protection over your father Osiris-Khentimentiu, so spread your protection over (the deceased), as you remove the impediment from Osiris-Khentimentiu, so he might live with the gods and drive Seth from him."
Spell 17 - "As for the tribunal that is behind Osiris, Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, Kebehsenuef; it is these who are behind the Great Bear in the northern sky....As for these seven spirits, Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, Kebehsenuef, Maayotef, He-Who-is-under-his-Moringa-Tree, and Horus-the-Eyeless, it is they who were set by Anubis as a protection for the burial of Osiris."
The four sons were also associated with four protective goddess, usually being paired as Imsety and Isis, Hapy and Nephthys, Duamutef and Neith, and Kebehsenuef and Selket.
The Sons of Horus were associated with various points of the compass, as well, with Imsety linked to the South, Hapy with the North, Duamutef the East and Kebehsenuef the West. In addition, Hapy and Duamutef were associated with the northern Delta city of Buto, while Imsety and Kebehsenuef were linked to the southern, or Upper Egyptian city of Hierakonpolis.
Source: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sonsofhorus.htm
Lori 
Posted by: Don Aug 10 03, 09:58
So, on the surface, at least, there appears to be a one to one relationship of number of canopic jars, organs within, and sons of Horus.
It is impossible for us moderns to grasp how complex names and numbers and colors and concepts were entwined to these ancients. A Celt could not say "white" without also simultaneously saying "Guinevere," which also simultaneously said "pure."
Perhaps we come closest with magic numbers. Of course, to the ancients they were essential rather than our term magic.
2,3,5,7,9,12,27,60 are 'magic numbers' of my exposure. You may wonder about "27?" Celts used base of 2 and 3. As you have point out elsewhere in "thrice fifty" they used multiples of 2 and 3 this way to express larger quantities or counts.
27 is a thrice nine and 9 is thrice three. You can see how powerfully fortunate number 27 was to them. Essentially it is thrice-thrice-thrice. Like being the seventh son of the seventh son to another culture, no?
You spoke of the 7 spirits. Do you agree similar to 7 dwarfs of European "Snow White?"
"The Big Bear" in northern sky is attributed to magic aspect of either 5 or 7, of which I do not remember.
To my understanding number 12 came from Egyptians somehow.
Ah yes, Southern and Northern Egypt, which is reverse of our North and South view. Egyptians saw the heavens upside down from us.
Don
Posted by: Zeus˛ Aug 10 03, 10:08
I think they pulled the brain out thru the nasal cavaties, then poured wax back in.
z2 >>> Larry
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