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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So, it’s easy – if you an Egyptology pedant – to pick holes The Mummy, which the two of us have done several times at the British Museum. But actually, being more generous about it, a lot of what’s in the film is clearly inspired by good evidence and in this episode we tried to cover what seemed to us to be the most important themes: including the way ancient Egypt appears – architecture, landscape, people, costumes, names – characters and places – the idea of the ‘Medjay’, the practice of mummification and whether anyone was ever mummified alive as in the movie (nope), and the way more modern Egypt and Egyptologists are portrayed (Egyptian Museum good, Bembridge Scholars… What?? No, what are they talking about?!)

Links:

To watch the movie online: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-mummy

For the original (1932) movie featuring Boris Karloff in the lead role which provides some of the inspiration including the names Imhotep and Anck-su-namun: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-mummy-1932

Some excellent books on some of the themes we covered include:

Gods and goddesses: Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt

Mummification: Dodson and Ikram, The Mummy in Ancient Egypt

The Book of the Dead (the real one that isn’t really a ‘book’): Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

The novel Chris mentioned about a society of Egyptologists which is actually a cover for men to get away from their wives and have affairs etc is Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest, The Egyptologists.

Oh and iszi's book incase she feels left out: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/cursed-tomb-9781801996020/

www.talklikeanegyptian.com

LAUNCHING SEPT 2025!

Talk Like An Egyptian with Dr Chris Naunton and Iszi Lawrence. To support the podcast join us on Patreon.com/talklikeanegyptian and unlock bonus content. Get in touch talklikeanegyptianpod@gmail.com or use #TLAE.

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