Hello Jammer and all,

You write, ‘I think the scenario slides past the AE Societal beliefs about the Pharaoh too quickly.
… As an allegory the Pharaoh (and his body) would have been far more important to his AE entourage and bodyguard than, say, a Regimental Flag to a American Civil War Regiment.
… Now to the Pharaoh’s scenario; would he be strolling the Nile alone?
Never. …

It has occurred to me that the king was probably heavily guarded and protected throughout his life (I see Charlotte touches on this), and his body not being available for mummification, etc., was probably, well, unimaginable.
About the only way his mortal remains could have been unavailable would be because he had been abducted by a UFO (don’t panic, folks, I’m not about to launch into a von Danikenesque theory )

However, this does not stop me from musing on what the AEs would have done had the unimaginable happened – for whatever reason.

What I have established so far is that had the unimaginable happened the king’s body would have been substituted with either another person’s body (or bits thereof), a dummy (such as mentioned by Roxana and Ritva), or a statue a la Anthony.

Which has led me to understand – rightly or wrongly - that Khufu's pyramid could have functioned as intended without the king's real body.

Regarding the substitution of a statue, Anthony writes, ‘First, it would never have been the intended nor preferred method. The statue would only have sufficed if the body had been lost.
Second, this determination of statue or body would only have happened after the king had died. You're not going to know in advance whether the body will be lost, so you must make the arrangements to have the tomb prepped to receive a body under nearly any circumstances. Only in the case of a missing body could a statue take its place in the king's tomb.
So, although I am saying it could be done without the actual mummy, it was never, ever intended to be that way. It was, sorry to say, another contingency for which they had a plan*. It was not the plan, though.’

This suggests to me that what I said would have been to the AEs unimaginable was actually not only imagined by them, but also effectively dealt with by them.
Not only could the burial rituals be completed (albeit after a fashion), but also the king’s soul could be sent off to wherever it was intended to go without (presumably) let or hindrance.

Is this a fair and reasonable conclusion, I wonder …

MJ

*this particular contingency I can understand and accept

BTW, Jammer. Many of we British prefer to overlook the embarrassment of Ishlandwana and instead bask in the glory of Rorke's Drift



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2007 12:57PM by MJ Thomas.