The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. The
people believed that, after you died, life continued in the land of the Two Fields.
In
the beginning, only pharaohs could board Ra's boat and travel to the land
of the Two Fields, and dwell forever in the heavenly Nile. But the god
Osiris changed that. Osiris opened the door to the afterlife to everyone
in ancient Egypt, provided his or her heart was
light. To keep your heart light, you had to spend a lifetime doing good
deeds. Crime was very low in ancient Egypt because everyone wanted to
spend eternity in the heavenly world of the Two Fields, home of the
Afterlife.
Before you could board Ra's boat, you had to satisfy a few
requirements.
-
First, you had to pass
the test of heart in the Hall of Maat.
-
Then, you had to
have your
name written down somewhere.
-
And you had to have a
preserved body.
The ancient Egyptians believed that everyone had a
soul. They called the soul by two names - the Ba and the Ka.
As the story goes, the Ba returned during the day to live
with the family. The Ka flew off to live in the afterlife, which was an
actual place. At night, both the Ba and the Ka flew home to sleep in the
body in its tomb. If something happened to your preserved body, or if
your name was not written down somewhere, the Ba and Ka would get lost.
They would not be able to come home to your mummified body, and you would disappear
forever, no longer able to dwell happily in your afterlife.
Which all goes to explain why grave robbing was the most horrible crime in
ancient Egypt. Grave robbers not only stole someone's wealth, they stole
their chance to live happily ever after in the Egyptian afterlife.
Punishment was swift and terrible for grave robbers caught robbing a
grave.
