these tombs are also discussed in this book. In terms of jewelry there are some similarities to the tombs of the princesses in the royal cemeteries. The rest of the tomb equipment, however, is often very different and even quite limited. Without the presence of jewelry many of the tombs would in fact appear rather poor. Nevertheless, the burials of these women, who did not belong to the royal court, attest to a wider spread of wealth in the late Middle Kingdom.8
BURIAL GOODS: AN OVERVIEW
In many cultures around the world people were buried with objects. These range from single items to the richly equipped tombs of the Egyptian New Kingdom or the similarly richly equipped burials in many periods of Chinese history. Burial goods are not found in all cultures. This is especially true for the modern (Western) world, where burial goods are not common at all, although the Christian and the Islamic faiths teach belief in an afterlife. Nevertheless, some kind of burial arrangement is found even in Christianity and in the Islamic world. In a medieval Islamic cemetery in southern Egypt personal adornments were still sporadically present, and the deceased were sometimes found wrapped in a decorated sheet of linen.9 In Europe people are placed in a coffin or urn and wrapped in a shroud or some other type of garment; even priests are buried in their official garments.10 It is said that the actor Bela Lugosi, who gained fame playing Dracula, was buried in his iconic Dracula cape.11 Today, flowers are typical grave goods often presented by family members and friends of the deceased and placed on the coffin.12
Grave goods generally had the function of providing the deceased with some kind of support for the afterlife, but in some cultures or contexts they had almost the opposite purpose, being put there to prevent the dead from coming back.13 To complicate matters, objects in graves are sometimes not grave goods at all. It is reported that the few objects sometimes placed in graves of the Nankanse people in Ghana belong to living people working at the funeral whose souls are thought to get trapped in the grave. To avoid death, an item belonging to each of these people is placed in the burial.14
In general terms there are two types of burial goods. There are the objects of a funerary industry, and there are the objects taken from daily life. A subgroup of the objects of a funerary industry are those used in rituals performed in funerary rites and afterward placed in the tomb chamber. It is evident that there are overlaps between these groups. Coffins are most likely always specially prepared for a tomb, though in ancient Egypt deceased children were often placed in boxes or vessels,15 objects perhaps already used in daily life.16
The following discussion tries to collect some of the most common reasons for placing burial goods in graves. There are certainly overlaps between the categories mentioned. A servant figure placed in the burial of an official might have had the function of providing physical help so that the deceased was not forced to work in the afterlife. Such a figure, however, might also confirm the social status of the deceased, emphasizing that he or she was an owner of servants and an estate.
Containers for the Body
Containers for the body of the deceased are the most common burial goods, found in most cultures around the world. In Egyptian burials these are boxes, pottery vessels, coffins,17 and in a wider sense mummy masks and perhaps also the burial chamber in general. In Egypt there developed for high-status burials the custom of a nest of coffins, one inside another, something also often found in China,18 where burial customs were elaborate and perhaps comparable to those of Egypt. In Egypt there also developed the custom of placing masks over the face of the deceased, something again attested in Han Dynasty China, although the Chinese “masks” are actually protective shields placed over the head.19 Indeed, masks for the deceased are quite widely known all over the world. Metal burial masks are attested in South America.20 Gold masks appear in Parthian Mesopotamia, but they are also known from the Black Sea and Sidon.21 Other containers for bodily remains are urns, common in cultures where the body of the deceased was burned, and ossuaries, boxes into which only the bones of the deceased were placed.
Equipment for the Journey into the Afterlife
Burial equipment for the journey into the afterlife implies a belief in another world to or though which the deceased travels. As most cultures have a belief in an underworld,22 equipping the deceased with objects important for a journey is common in many cultures.23 It is well attested in the Hellenistic world, where the deceased was buried with an obol for Charon, the ferryman to the underworld. Similar ideas are known from China, where the deceased were dressed comfortably for the journey. Furthermore, they received rice to feed dangerous dogs that were believed to attack the travelers on their way, and staffs for beating them off.24 Certain Mesopotamian cuneiform texts clearly state that burial goods were provisions for the deceased’s journey. These included footwear, a belt, water, and some food.25
In most cultures mainly known from archaeology, however, written sources are absent, and the reasons objects were placed in tombs remain guesswork. Equipping the deceased for the journey into the next world is often given as an explanation for burial goods, although hard evidence is lacking. For burials in Bahrain, vessels placed in the burial were explained in this way.26 Lamps found in tombs are sometimes explained as providing light for the journey into the dark underworld, which in many cultures was indeed situated underground, although that is only one possible explanation for lamps in burials.27
The same explanations have been proposed for some late Middle Kingdom burials. It has been observed that many of the burial goods in tombs of this period might be objects of daily life that would especially be needed for a journey. These include gaming boards for leisure, food supplies, and writing equipment, including papyri.28
Participating in Special Events in the Underworld
Pottery vessels in burials belong to the most common burial goods from all cultures and often seem to indicate a need to supply food. This might be either food required for the journey or a general symbolic food supply for all eternity. Tableware found in graves in Bahrain has been explained as important for the deceased so that he or she could join the afterlife banquet.29 Underworld banquets are part of the underworld beliefs of the Greeks and Etruscans. The same explanation is given for tableware found in an early Iron Age cemetery on Crete: “Offerings seem to express a respect for the good things of life—banqueting.”30
The Tomb as a House for the Afterlife
During the First and Second Dynasties31 the whole tomb was seen as the “house of the afterlife.” We find furniture and a vast quantity of pottery storage vessels for the eternal food supply. This concept appears again in tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It appears also in other cultures, for example in the case of certain Etruscan tombs whose architecture seems to copy contemporary houses very closely.32 In many cultures it is common for urns or ossuaries to have the shape of a house, most likely also reflecting the idea of the tomb as a house for the afterlife. Examples include ossuaries of the Ghassulian culture in Palestine dating from the fourth millennium BCE.33
Helping Hands
In many cultures a sacrifice for the burial of an important member of society is attested.34 There are various possible reasons for this custom. One might be practical. Persons of high status wanted to have their servants in the afterlife so that they would not have to work. In Egypt this is found as early as the First Dynasty, when people of slightly lower status were buried around their masters. Burial goods indicate that they were often craftsmen.35 Whether they were actually sacrificed is still under discussion. It appears, however, that the subsidiary tombs around the tomb of the First Dynasty king Semerkhet were integrated with the king’s tomb as one unit, which seems to indicate the servants were buried at the same time as the king and were most likely killed for the royal burial.36 The same idea can be found in several
