Mortuary cult

A mortuary cult (also called funerary cult and death cult) is a ceremonial and religious form of a cult fostered over a certain duration of time, often lasting for generations or even dynasties. It concerns deceased peoples kept in the memories of their bereaved members, mostly family members or loyal servants.

The most common form of a mortuary cult is a tomb with gravestone, which is visited by the bereaved frequently. A further, well known, form of a mortuary cult is a shrine with a picture or bust of the deceased, which is also visited and cared frequently. The Japanese Shintō-cult is well known for its memorial shrines erected for mortuary cults. Another, more unusual, form of mortuary cult is an urn with ash, deposed at the home of the yet-living bereaved. Especially ancient cultures are known for their mortuary cults, because they left behind extraordinary memorials, which were used for mortuary cults during the epoques in which they were created.

A famous form of mortuary cults is handed down by the Ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians fostered a very intense form of death cult, because they were of the belief that the soul (Egypt. Ba) and consciousness (Egypt. Ka) frequently returned to the world of the living in attempt to guard and guide them. To hold the power of the soul and consciousness up eternally, the Egyptians erected shrines (so-called House-of-the-Ka) and mortuary temples, where they performed prayers and ceremonies over several dynasties. Especially the mortuary cults for deceased kings were very costly and long-lasting. Early private tombs of the first four dynasties contained so-called slab stelas with the stylized depiction of the deceased, sitting on an offering table. The stela also presented inscriptions with the name and title of the deceased, together with lists of offering food and grave goods the deceased could magically use in the otherworld. Private tombs (especially mastabas) contained also so-called false doors, of which the Egyptians believed that the Ba, Ka and shadow of the deceased could use false doors as a portal between the world of living and the world of the dead. Additionally, in later times the Egyptians erected so-called Ka-statues with the name of the deceased on the base. Royal statues were richly decorated and oversized and every day mortuary priests performed ritual purifications on these Ka-statues.

...
Wikipedia