The False Door: The Afterlife In Ancient Egyptian Religion

Entrance into the afterlife was dependent upon the weight of the heart. If the heart was heavier than the feather of maat, it was fed to Ammut, “The Devourer”, and the soul was cast into darkness with no chance of ever reaching the afterlife. All Egyptians believed in the afterlife; therefore, religion was evidenced in the daily lives and cultural practices of the people. “The Egyptians saw death as a transitional stage in the progress to a better life in the next world. They believed they could only reach their full potential after death.” (Ancient Egyptian Religion) In accordance with this belief, the Egyptians created the false door. The false door was thought to be a gateway for spirits to enter and exit the tomb into the outside

“A false door provided in the tomb structure to allow the deceased’s ka to pass from the burial chamber to partake of the offerings.” (The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt) Because of this, a great amount of time and effort was spent in designing the false door to include the Egyptian’s main form of record keeping, hieroglyphics, and other painstaking details to reflect the owner’s good deeds, keeping them from entering the underworld. The false door was a form of connection between the afterlife and the material world. Without the necessary objects, the afterlife would not mirror the life that they had lived. It was the belief that a pharaoh was destined to be a pharaoh in the afterlife, if the items to signify this were kept inside his tomb. Furthermore, during the Middle Kingdom era, the Hounds and Jackals game was a very common practice among the Egyptians. This game had a strong religious influence as its main purpose was to liken the voyage through the underworld, which to Egyptians was a game of chance where the object was to avoid penalties and seek rewards. The Egyptian’s strong belief in the afterlife made this game an appropriate tomb artifact because the spirit of the deceased had to navigate through the underworld successfully in order to reach the afterlife, just like in the game. These practices demonstrate that religion was woven into people’s daily lives and cultural practices in ancient Egypt. Through the importance of the false door and the significance of the game of Hounds and Jackals, the religious connotations are exemplified throughout