The Change in Afterlife Perception During Egypt's Middle Kingdom

At the beginning of the Old Kingdom, the pharaoh was "in theory omnipotent and- omnipresent (Brewer, 34)." The king dominated a highly centralized state whose apparent purpose was to insure the king's ascension into the afterlife. However, as the political institutions began to break down, the focus on religion became decentralized. Religion assumed a more democratic character as the pharaoh-centered theology waned.
The power of the pharaoh in the Old Kingdom can most directly be expressed by the royal tombs. The sheer magnitude of the tombs constructed in the Old Kingdom illustrates the cooperation of a very significant portion of the population. The state conscripted huge pools of man-power to accomplish these massive architectural feats. It is said that approximately 10,000 men constructed the pyramid of Khufu. However, this figure does not take into account the massive support staff required to aid the artisans and craftsmen involved (34). From this we can assume that a larg...