Primary and Secondary In-Class activity

Give thorough and thoughtful answers to the questions based on our class discussion.

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1. Why do you think the amount of food offerings was changing in the different burial stages? What do you think the ancient Syrians thought was happening with the deceased person’s afterlife journey?
2. The ancient Syrians also did the equivalent of a kispu ritual for the dead. Thinking about the two stages of the kispu—the named dead versus the collective dead—what kind of kispu do you think they would do for deceased persons in each of these burial stages?
3. It looks like they never intended to reunite the skulls with the bodies. What do you think happened to the skulls? What would they have to believe about the body for this to work?
4. Some scholars talk about three stages for the deceased: separation from the living world, transformation into a dead person, and incorporation into the society of the dead. Which of these stages are happening in each of the burial types/stages?
5. You are digging in Judah when you discover a tomb of four chambers. The three side chambers each contain two benches. One bench has a complete deceased person on it who is wearing an eye-of-Horus amulet. The other benches contain disarticulated skeletons mixed with bronze bowls and a few horse-and-rider figurines. Wall inscriptions identify some of the deceased as family members. Your patron asks you to describe what is important about what you have found in a paragraph to be published in a newspaper. What do you say?