Art conveys the values and beliefs of a culture, including prevailing attitudes toward death and the afterlife. Often imagery associated with death and the afterlife will contain religious symbolism or iconography, because religions tend to be occupied with questions related to human mortality and the nature of the soul. Some cultures were preoccupied with preparations for death and the afterlife, and have left behind a panoply of objects testifying to

On viewing extensive amounts of Egyptian art, the similarities between the subjects and styles is somewhat astounding to a Western eye, which is more trained to notice the different signs of individual artists. It easily becomes clear that though the Egyptians saw aesthetic value in art and material things, most of the artwork they left behind -- especially in tombs and funerary chapels -- serve a much higher purpose

Figurine of the Goddess Wadjet In the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, there is a sculpture in the Egyptian wing that depicts one of the Egyptian goddesses. The piece is entitled "Figurine of the Goddess Wadjet." It is located in Hammer Building Room 303 of the museum amongst the other Egyptian art exhibits. It was given to the museum from the Hearst family, famous for their collection of ancient, historically-significant

African-American Art The art of African-Americans became a powerful medium for social and self-expression. Visual arts including sculpture carried with it political implications related to colonialism, oppression, and liberation. Along with other forms of creative expression, African-American visual arts particularly flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. Three exemplary pieces of art that represent the character, tone, and tenor of African-American art during the Harlem Renaissance include Meta Warrick Fuller's "Ethiopia Awakening," Palmer

Likewise, the dead were honored with elaborate preparation rituals to send them off into the next, permanent world of death. They were incased in enormous preservative monuments as well as several layers of coffins. Because of this elaborate nature of death ritual, and their focus on religious rituals, Egyptians were often credited by the Greeks for originating their religion, as "the Egyptians, they went on to affirm, first brought

These pyramids were the resting places of these kings and pharaohs' sacred bodies, which the Egyptians believed should be preserved if the soul should live beyond. This explains why they prevented the decay of the corpses through a mysteriously elaborate method of embalming as mummies. They lay these mummies in stone coffins and wrote incantations to assist them in their journey in the next world. The Egyptians meant that