Evidence about funerals comes from scenes on tomb walls, mainly at Thebes, and spells and vignettes in funerary papyri buried with officials. Following mummification, the coffin was transported to the west bank of the Nile. The body’s passage from east to west in a boat echoed the daily course of the Sun God across the sky. Two female mourners knelt beside the coffin, symbolising the goddesses Isis and Nephthys grieving for Osiris, the god of the dead, with whom the deceased was identified. The coffin was dragged on a sled across the desert to the tomb, preceded by a priest pouring water to purify the way.

At the tomb-side the ritual of ‘Opening the Mouth’ was performed by the lector priest. The mummy-case was stood upright with close female relatives weeping beside it. The lector priest recited the spell which enabled living faculties to be restored to the deceased in the tomb. Assistant priests scattered water over the mummy case and touched the mouth of the coffin with ritual implements, some of which symbolised constellations of the sky.

Hired women made elaborate exhibitions of grief by wailing and tearing at their garments. Two men performed an ancient dance connected with the god Osiris. The mummy was taken into the burial chamber which had been filled with funerary equipment such as furniture and statues. Finally cattle were slaughtered and there was a ritual feast.