Photo of the Nile River from vecteezy.com
Article by Erin Devanadera
Egypt remains one of the most fascinating countries in the modern world. Its prominence, almost always attributed to its historical and socio-environmental figures and innovations, from the great pyramids to the writings and infrastructures built by the ancients (and many more), has carved a significant appeal and impact surpassing its locality. Arising from the 4th millennium BCE, northeastern Africa and its bountiful lands paved the way for such a civilization to flourish, establishing and preserving a kind of diaspora that revered not only the land but also the river and the skies, where its history, religion, and legacy found its roots in the Nile.
No stranger to partaking in the spiritual, the concepts of polytheism and the Pantheon (where multiple gods and goddesses co-exist and are highly esteemed) were deeply integrated into the religious and mythological practices and traditions sought and adhered to, regardless of Egyptian status and ancestry. Religion and mythology intersected with the way of life, art, and aspirations of the ancient Egyptians—death and immortality commonly a symposium used to describe and navigate the ever-fleeting realities of mortality and time. The rulers and the common folk utilized the land, wood, and the river (the papyrus, limestone walls, and canoes) to fulfill and realize the different tales and wills of the gods and what comes after death. Such is the vessel found in the afterlife, a state and place unknown to humankind yet reimagined and constituted into the Egyptian religion, impacting the state and way of each human affair.
This element, making up the foundation of ancient Egyptian living, helped introduce several architectural inventions that incorporated the day-to-day spiritual beliefs of the time. One of these primordial crafts, an understated discovery of modern archaeology, points to firmly built ships known as the “Abydos” boats, alternatively classified as a sailing ship or a “barque.” Deserted in the sands of Abydos, Egypt, it is a fleet carefully crafted with wood and planks dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE. It was excavated by archaeological groups from the University of Pennsylvania, New York, and Yale under the objective of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities in 1991, in which such a discovery further confirmed the once hypothetical view of burial and boat graves existing not only for aesthetic purposes but also for the symbolic continuation of the ancient Egyptians’ journey towards the afterlife.
Photo of Egyptian Fishermen on the Nile River from vecteezy.com
Archaeologists who studied the findings discovered approximately 14 boat fleets measuring between 60 and 80 feet long. The boats were most likely placed beside the rulers’ burial grounds, such as the boat grave of Second Dynasty Pharaoh Khasekhemwy (2686 BCE), which was covered in mud bricks and stood 11 feet high. However, later research highlighted an even earlier precedent for this burial practice. The First Dynasty Pharaoh Hor-Aha (3162 BCE) was buried alongside his servants in Umm el-Qa’ab, a ritualistic practice known as the “retainer sacrifice,” in which servants were killed and entombed near their ruler to symbolize their continuous service in the afterlife. The most well-known example of this phenomenon can also be attributed to the boat grave inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, dedicated to uplifting the spirit of Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu (2566 BCE), excavated in 1954.
Many ancient Egyptians believed this canoe prepared them for the life awaiting—the Sekhet-Aaru or the Field of Reeds, an Egyptian concept of heaven. They also readied themselves for the divine judgment of Osiris, the chief god of the Egyptian underworld, who prudently decided the fate of the soul based on its merit and deeds on earth. Alongside these inferences, the Abydos boats also signified a technological advancement in boat crafting, a fleet made of wooden planks where dugout canoes were commonly habituated for travel, warfare, and commerce during the Neolithic period. Burial grounds with boat graves, like the Abydos, served as a physical enactment of the ancient Egyptians' belief and reverence for life, divinity, and immortality. This boat, crafted and symbolically conveyed, represented an interconnection between the gods and humankind, insinuating a sacred purpose and a communal space transcending and emanating the plane of the mortal and the metaphysical, in which a promised fulfillment of eternity awaits the soul with a good and courageous heart.
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