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Ancient Egypt

Mummies

Mummies
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   8.18

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    canopic, embalmers, law-abiding, natron, nerve-racking, oxygen-deprived, proceeding, reborn, resin, sapped, completion, testimony, excruciating, lengthy, disastrous, spells
     content words:    Judgment Hall

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Mummies
By Vickie Chao 		  
1     The ancient Egyptians had a very interesting take on death.
 
2     They believed that when a person died, his or her spirit would travel west to the Duat (land of the dead) to face a nerve-racking test called "weighing of the heart." The test was carried out every evening in the Judgment Hall of Osiris for all who had died that day. During the excruciating test, each spirit was summoned forward to see Osiris, lord of the dead, and to make its final pleas. After a lengthy testimony of good deeds and law-abiding behaviors, the spirit rested its case and let Anubis, a jackal-headed god, weigh the deceased's heart against the Feather of Truth.
 
3     If the heart was heavier than the Feather of Truth, it meant the spirit had lied. It meant the deceased had not been the great person the spirit claimed to be. The heart would be devoured by Ammut, a monstrous god, at a blink of eye. The spirit would be condemned to hell.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
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