We came back again with a new story from the stories of my ancient Egyptian ancestors, and in our talk today we will learn about an important ritual of death among the ancient Egyptians and the way they cared for their ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and preserved their bodies from damage and decomposition throughout the ages. They knew the funeral rituals, which, in their belief, guaranteed the deceased a safe pᴀssage through the world. The other is to preserve the internal body parts, such as the lung, liver, and others, in canopic vessels that are buried with the deceased.

The Egyptian civilization is considered one of the most ancient civilizations that has taught the world the value of science and the arts, and its belief depends on resurrection and immortality. Ancient Egyptian art came as an embodiment of this belief, which formed a solid foundation for all aspects of life in ancient Egypt.

(Wooden coffins) are considered a development of ancient Egyptian art throughout the ages. The design and shape of coffins differed from one historical period to another to reflect the chronological development, the social level of the coffin owner, and religious beliefs.
The beginning of the appearance of wooden coffins was based on the idea of ​​manufacturing a box of unadorned wood in which the deceased was placed to protect the body instead of placing it directly in the sand.

(Types of coffins):
The wood used in making coffins varied according to the degree of wealth of the deceased. The royal coffins and the coffins of the nobles were made of wood different from the wood used by the class or the poor, which was made from local wood. The coffin was considered one of the most important priorities of the Egyptian religion, as it was prepared to protect the body after death, and the preserved body was one of the most important. The necessary elements to transform the deceased into an active spirit in the other world, the world of immortality.
The coffin was considered a major component of the burial group in the pre-dynastic period to the Greek and Roman era. It was in the form of (rectangular) and others (square). The different shapes of coffins are due to their belief in providing comfort to the deceased, considering the coffin is the primary residence for him inside the grave.

The only function of the coffin was not only to protect the body of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, but it had many religious and symbolic functions that changed with the pᴀssage of time and the style of its formation and decoration varied.
The ancient Egyptians had ᴀssembled the wooden boards together to make the coffin to consist of the lid, which represents (the sky), and the bottom, which represents (the earth), in addition to the four sides, which represent the original directions.

The most important of these woods used by the ancient Egyptians
she:
(Juniper wood), (Cypress wood), (Pine wood), (Sycamore wood), (Cedar wood), (Athel wood), (Acacia wood)
Coffins were made of many other materials, such as gilded wood, colored wood, gold and silver, or granite stone or pink black granite, as in the coffin of Hatshepsut. This coffin is found in…
Boston Museum.

We find that the coffins of kings used gold in large quanтιтies and consisted of more than one coffin inside each of them. For example, the coffin of King Tutankhamun was composed of four coffins inside each other, gradually increasing in size, then smaller, and so on.
As for the coffins of the princes, the elite in ancient Egyptian society, and the rich, most of their coffins were made of granite or rare wood that came from the country of Bhut or the Levant at that time.

The white stone was widely available in Egypt, and also because it was easy to manufacture and prepare due to the ease and flexibility of use in the nature of limestone.

As for the coffins of the middle class, they were often made from sycamore or acacia trees, which were widespread throughout the Egyptian kingdom and on the banks of its great Nile. For the poor, it was sufficient for them to be wrapped in linen, not mummified, and placed in their grave with some pottery vessels that they used in their daily life. This was due to the circumstances.

The materialistic person because the cost of embalming and coffin materials was expensive and its trade was controlled by the high priests who were performing the embalming process at that time and it was limited to them and no one else learned it and it was one of the secrets of the Egyptian Kingdom. We have reached the end of the story and it was a brief overview of the history of Egypt.