Dangers to the Dead

So through both my nonacademic readings, and my research for the case study I thought of an interesting idea for this entry. In many horror films there is a very present idea of how the dead are dangers to the living, zombies, vampires, reverants, malicious spirits etc... But something that is not present are the stories, of the dangers to the dead themselves, as once a person is no longer corporeal, well that's not the end of the fear of extinguished existence. I have located two cultural stories that are present through grave art and ornamentation in the archaeological record to illustrate this point.

The first of these creatures is Ammit or Ammut (Devourer); she is the Egyptian female demon with a crocodile head and a body that is part lion, part hippopotamus, and crocodile. She eats the hearts of the dead who do not pass the test of the scales of justice in the Egyptian Underworld, extinguishing their souls forever. When researching for the case study I found that some of the paintings from Nefertari’s grave exhibited Ammut in her traditional place near the scales.

The second creature is Satan or Lucifier or the devil within Christian religious traditions. The basic story is Satan is a male ruler of Hell that takes the souls of the damned to be tortured. Though I was not able to locate any images of Satan directly on a grave, I was able to locate a representation on an item that is in the same historical monestary complex as many burials. Within the Gelati Monastery near Kutaisi, Imerteti, western Georgia, there is an icon that has a representation of Satan and hell depicted on it, and there are 10 inidividuals buried here were all important to church and state,

• Demetre I of Georgia
• David IV of Georgia
• Solomon I of Imereti
• Solomon II of Imereti
• George III of Georgia
• Vakhtang II of Georgia
• Bagrat VI of Georgia
• George V of Georgia
• Alexander II of Imereti
• George of Chqondidi