6 Repeating the Ritual Underground: Performance of the Royal Object Ritual in the Middle Kingdom
In: Variability in the Earlier Egyptian Mortuary TextsSearch for other papers by Seria Yamazaki in
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Abstract
This study examines the possibility that the royal object ritual, an important funerary ritual deeply connected to Osirification, was performed strategically in the Middle Kingdom. The object friezes on early Middle Kingdom coffins contained depictions of objects offered during this ritual, which were later retrieved from late Middle Kingdom tombs as real grave goods. There is still room for discussion from the perspective of the ritual performance through examining the assemblages of objects and their placement both on the coffins and in the tombs. In the first part of this study, we analyse the object friezes on coffins, which reveals that certain sets of objects on coffins and their layout in a specific pattern indicates they were repeatedly offered to the deceased in the coffin. In the second part, we study several burials where actual objects associated with the royal object ritual were found and note that the ritual performed in the tombs is similar to the coffin decorations in terms of the assemblage and placement of objects. Finally, we conclude that the royal object ritual was planned to be repeated through the arrangement of the objects even if the form of these objects changed from depictions on coffins to actual grave goods. Establishing a structural ritual place defined by coffin decorations and the placement of real grave goods helped the strategic repetition of the royal object ritual. This repetition implies that the hourly vigil was also repeated, which aided the resurrection of the deceased for eternity.