Tomb
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What is a tomb?
A tomb, in the strictest sense, is a house or home for the dead, though the term is applied loosely to graves, funerary monuments, and memorials. In early cultures, the dead were buried in their houses, and tombs may have developed from this practice, as a reproduction in permanent materials of primeval house types.
Royal tombs were furnished with objects and servants put to death at burial, though statues or painted images later replaced human beings. In medieval Christian thought, the tomb was an earthly symbol of a heavenly home. Since the Renaissance, the idea of the tomb as a home has faded in the West, except in mausoleums above graves or burial vaults in modern cemeteries. Tombs can take varied forms, as shown in the Valley of the Kings.
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Why do people build tombs?
People build tombs as houses or homes for the dead, reflecting a belief in an afterlife where the deceased may need tools, personal effects, clothes, utensils, and furniture. In early times, servants were even sacrificed to serve the royal dead.
Tombs also serve as monuments or memorials to honor the dead. Some cultures burn the bodies and place the ashes in funerary urns. In medieval Christian tradition, tombs symbolized a heavenly home, as seen in the Roman catacombs decorated with scenes of resurrection.
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What are some different types of tombs?
Tombs have taken many forms across cultures and throughout history. In ancient Egypt, the mastaba was a standard tomb type, featuring a rectangular superstructure made of mud brick or stone with a deep shaft leading to the burial chamber.
Pyramids are perhaps the most recognizable type of tomb, with the Great Pyramid of King Khufu being a prime example. During the New Kingdom, rock-cut tombs were constructed in the Valley of the Kings to prevent looting.
The tumulus period in Japan saw the creation of large, keyhole-shaped burial mounds known as kofun. Additionally, a mausoleum is a stone building with places for the dead bodies of several people or the body of an important person.
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How have tombs changed throughout history?
Throughout history, tombs have evolved from simple houses for the dead to complex architectural monuments. Early tombs mirrored domestic dwellings, stocked with necessities for the afterlife.
In ancient Egypt, mastabas transitioned to step pyramids and then to true pyramids, like the Great Pyramid of Giza. These monumental structures symbolized royal power and protected against tomb robbers. The Valley of the Kings saw hidden, rock-cut tombs with elaborate decorations.
Later, during the medieval Christian era, tombs symbolized a heavenly home, with churches serving as burial sites adorned with gisants. Renaissance marked a shift towards funerary monuments rather than tombs, and the concept of tombs as homes faded in the West.
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What materials are commonly used in building tombs?
Tombs, serving as homes for the deceased, have been built with various materials throughout history. In ancient Egypt, builders used mud brick and stone, with stone reserved for royal tombs and temples. Egyptian temples used limestone, sandstone, alabaster, granite, basalt, and porphyry. Early tomb barrows often mirrored domestic house construction, using permanent materials. Royal tombs from the early dynasties were made of mud brick.
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How do famous tombs, like the Egyptian pyramids, reflect the beliefs of their cultures?
Famous tombs, such as the Egyptian pyramids and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, mirror their cultures' beliefs about death and the afterlife.
In ancient Egypt, pyramids were constructed as eternal dwellings for pharaohs, ensuring their safe passage to the afterlife with material provisions and symbolized their power. Similarly, Chinese emperors' tombs, like that of Qin Shi Huang, were designed to replicate their earthly life, filled with utensils, servants, and treasures to guarantee a secure transition. These elaborate preparations and grand structures underscore the importance these societies placed on the afterlife and the continuation of earthly status and comfort in the world beyond.
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Tomb, in the strictest sense, a home or house for the dead; the term is applied loosely to all kinds of graves, funerary monuments, and memorials. In many primitive cultures the dead were buried in their own houses, and the tomb form may have developed out of this practice, as a reproduction in permanent materials of primeval house types. Thus prehistoric tomb barrows were usually built around a round hut, in which the body was placed, along with tools and other personal effects for use in the next life. With the more advanced technology of early civilizations, brick and stone tombs appeared, often of great size, but still preserving primitive house forms. They were sometimes domical and sometimes rectangular, depending on which form was in common domestic use when the tombs began to be built. Being thought of as houses, such tombs were often lavishly provided with clothes, utensils, and furniture, so that they are major sources of knowledge about the cultures that built them.
In very early times, royal dead were apparently provided not only with all manner of necessary objects but also with actual servants, who were put to death at the time of the burial so that they might continue to serve their master. Typical is the tomb of Queen Shub-Ad of Ur (Early Dynastic Period in Mesopotamia, c. 2900–c. 2334 bc), which contained the bodies of more than 60 attendants. It became more common, however, to substitute statues or painted images for human beings. This was the practice in most Egyptian tombs; and from such painted pictures and statuettes, particularly in Old and Middle Kingdom tombs, a vivid picture of Egyptian life can be gained.
In many cultures and civilizations the tomb was superseded by, or coexisted with, monuments or memorials to the dead; sometimes, as in ancient Greece, the bodies were burned and the ashes put in funerary urns. In medieval Christian thought, the tomb was considered an earthly prototype and symbol of a heavenly home. This concept appeared in the Roman catacombs, the walls of which were decorated with scenes of the resurrected in paradise. The church building itself sometimes functioned as a tomb (e.g., Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was the tomb of Justinian). Throughout the Middle Ages it was common to inter bodies in churches, monasteries, and chapels, with depictions of the deceased on carved or painted plaques, or as life-size gisants (reclining sculptured figures, usually lying on their backs) placed above them. The deceased were represented not as corpses but as souls living in heaven, with their hands pressed together in adoration and the symbols of their salvation beside them. During the 15th century it became a common Christian practice to represent such figures as dead (usually on biers). This foreshadowed a general revival of the Greek practice of erecting funerary monuments, rather than tombs, during the 16th century. Since the Renaissance, the idea in the West of the tomb as a home has died out, except as a faint reminiscence in the mausoleums sometimes erected above graves or serving as burial vaults in modern cemeteries. See also barrow; dolmen; effigy mound; gisant; sarcophagus.
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