7 juni 2023 | The cult of Osiris

The cult of Osiris: Afterlife concepts in Amarna and post-Amarna periods

The largely unknown afterlife concepts in the transitional phase from the Amarna to the post-Amarna period can be grasped because of some artefacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV 62). In the immediately preceding epoch, Akhenaten takes over in a certain sense the task of a god of the dead. Osiris himself is largely ignored during the Amarna period, since his responsibilities were completely transferred to the figure of the king. Even after death, the pharaoh is the first addressee of the deceased and guarantees the care of the ancestors as the supreme mediator. All the more attention should be paid to the post-Amarnian role of Osiris and the divine role of king Tutankhamun. Based on the objects placed on Tutankhamun’s mummy this circumstance and the under this king even more strengthened embedding of Osiris in the solar course can be demonstrated. In addition, some artefacts show a combination between Amarna style, pictorial language and an innovative pictorial statement, which unites the previous with the new. It is to be explained in how far the Osiris cult in the immediate post-Amarna period under Tutankhamun was already authoritatively re-established and can be proved in the same way up to the Ramesside period.

Photographs by H. Burton, Copyright Griffith Institute Oxford.