Art History Journal

WHY WERE THE EGYPTIANS SO OBSESSED WITH CONTINUITY AND PERMANENCE?




I think egyptians are so preoccupied with continuity and permanence because of their beliefs in the afterlife. The egyptians firmly believed that life on earth now was only part of their total life as a whole. They believed their earthly bodies were just vessels to transport them until they were able to move on from the earth to the heavens.

Because of this they built structures they believed would last forever, like the pyramids. They needed that feeling of permanence because they believed they would be around in some form forever. The pyramids they, believed, would transport them to their afterlife.

Their obsession with continuity is linked with their obsession of permanence in that they believed their souls would continue to live on forever. Not on this earth but after death when they would leave their earthly bodies and enter their heavenly ones.

So, because of their beliefs in the afterlife they needed to have things in their life that not only represented something permanent but to them would be also physically permanent. Which would also represent their continuation beyond earth after they died but into the heavens.