The ancient Egyptians’ beliefs in the afterlife were many and varying, weren’t the same for pharaohs and commoners, and changed over time but in this episode we did our best to cover the main bases including: the journey made the sun / the king through the netherworld (the ‘amduat’), the main groups of texts including the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts and ‘Book of the Dead’, the decoration of tombs, coffins, papyri and other funerary equipment including shabti figurines.

Links:

An excellent overview of Egyptian funerary practices beliefs in the afterlife is Taylor, Death and The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt.

This includes discussions of all the major groups of texts but should any of you wish to look into those in more detail you might enjoy:

The Pyramid Texts online: https://pyramidtextsonline.com

Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (mentioned in the notes for the previous episode).

Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (includes discussions of the Amduat and related texts/ideas)

On Egyptian tombs you might like Dodson and Ikram, The Tomb in Ancient Egypt

Or, ahem, Chris’s own book: Naunton, Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt.

Oh, and I supposed, if you are after historical fiction for 9-12 year olds that touches on real ancient egyptian belief in the after life and heart scarabs you'll want iszi's book: Iszi Lawrence, The Cursed Tomb

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