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Everyone understand what is meant by death when speaking of the end of someone's terrestrial presence. The subject becomes a bit more controversial when speaking of what is spiritually involved with the death. In the Ancient Egyptian civilisation, death had a much deeper meaning than the disappearance of a living being on Earth. Most of us think that the Egyptians were really preoccupied by death but we're wrong to use the word "death". We should say that Egyptians were obsessed by life. Indeed, all those gigantic buildings were made to survive the erosion of time so that the Egyptians civilisation would remain alive in our memories forever. Death was only a passage in everyone's life, an open door leading us to a new life.
In the old religion, death is a final point. It mean the death of all those who didn't believe in the Gods and those who always took part in all the religious rituals. The survival of the soul depends on the knowledge of theology that the dead acquired during his life and it also depends on the magical spells he knew. When the soul leaves the body, it follows paths and small corridors on a dangerous journey in the underworld until it arrives in Osiris's hall of judgement. The journey to the hall is dangerous because the soul has to resist the assault of snakes and demons. Just before entering the hall, the soul has to pass the gatekeepers and the only way to pass them is to pronounce their name. In the hall, Osiris and 42 judges are waiting the soul for the final judgement which is evaluated on a scale, on one side, you have the heart of the dead and on the other side you have got the truth, harmony and justice of God Maat. If there is a balance, the soul is accepted in the underworld and gets the appearance of a God. His name also becomes Osiris + his former name. This way, the dead receives the status of a god with a human soul.
As a preparation for the difficult passage to the underworld, the tomb is decorated with paintings representing what the dead has done during his life. Magic spells are also written to make his passage to the underworld easier. In the beginning of the Egyptian civilisation, those paintings and magic spells were only reserved for pharaohs and their close family. After the first intermediate period, tombs of less important people began to be decorated as well. This is also the beginning of the sarcophagus texts inside and outside the sarcophagus. Those texts were written to help the dead to find his way in the underworld. The eye that was painted on the cover of the sarcophagus was the eye that the dead would use to look through his sarcophagus. And during the New Empire, the papyrus was introduced in tombs but as papyrus was an expensive thing, only those who could afford it were accompanied by papyri in their death. All the set of spells and rituals supposed to help the dead in his passage to the underworld were written in a big book called the book of the dead. This book would provide the basic spells needed to enter the underworld.
As said above, the tomb is a kind of preparation room where the dead could find everything he needs to help him in his next life. In order to remain alive in the memory of the living people, there was a cult of the dead that consisted in offering food and personal belongings to the dead. This task was carried out by a priest called ka-priest. The amount of goods offered to the dead depended on how rich he was. The food was left on the altar until the priest judged that the spirit of the dead had been able to use it. The financial expenses of this ritual were covered by the rent of the tomb. When for some reason, the family couldn't pay for the offerings, a kind of menu was drawn on the tomb so that even if all the family died or if they could pay anymore, the dead would still receive the necessary resources to survive.
Most of us think that Egyptian were obsessed by death but we're wrong, they were obsessed by life. They have built huge buildings that are still standing today, they did it on purpose in order to remain alive in our memory. Physical death was only a passage to another life.
