Anthony Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Excellent question, MJT.
>
> I think the answer to your question lies in the
> concept of Ma'at itself, and how the weighing of
> the heart ceremony relates to the choices we make
> as mortals here in this lifetime.
>
> In order to make it into the Duat, the Egyptian
> afterlife, one had to go through the "weighing of
> the heart" ceremony, pictured in the masthead of
> Ma'at's website above.
>
> If the heart being weighed was found to be "as
> light as a feather", then the owner of the heart
> was allowed to pass through the gates to the Duat
> and his immortal existence was somewhat
> guaranteed. (yes, he still had further tests to
> pass, but this was the first biggie he had to get
> through).
>
> Now, if you had a revelation that told you how to
> build your tomb, or a temple, or a civic project
> of some proportion, you would be honor-bound to
> commence that project. Unlike our modern mindset,
> however, the road to the Duat is paved with good
> intentions. Starting the project was seen,
> probably, as good as actually finishing it, when
> the gods called you up for judgment time. Not
> starting it, or not doing your best to complete it
> once started, would probably leave your heart
> feeling a bit too heavy and you'd end up getting
> it thrown to the nasty beasty that sits behind
> Anubis.
>
> If we drop back away from pyramids and into the
> realm of mastabas, there is quite a bit of
> acceptance of the idea that the mastaba
> represented the Primeval Mound. If, in the case
> of a pyramid being unfinished and completed as a
> giant flat-topped square, we can imagine that they
> would have considered it to be representative of
> the same Primeval Mound that had served kings well
> for centuries before the pyramid was invented.
> It's kind of a "drop back and punt" option, but
> there's little reason to think it wouldn't have
> been an acceptable response to an early demise by
> a king.

Hello Anthony,

I'm quite taken with this explanation.
To me it makes a lot of sense - the 'Primeval Mound' part in particular.
I can understand the "at least he had a crack at it" mentality.
It'll be interesting to read what others here think of your ideas.


> Those are my culturally specific thoughts on the
> matter.

I appreciate your posting them.


> I think you'll find Lehner's discussion
> of the evolution from mastaba to pyramid to offer
> some nice insights into this as well (TCP, chapter
> 2 or 3, I think).

I have a copy of The Complete Pyramids[/].
I'll have read of it later.
I tend to use Lehner's book as a dip-into-reference work; I've never actually sat down with it and read it cover-to-cover.

Regards,

MJ