nothing unusual, and is probably perfectly explicable psychologically
by means of dreams.

There is little or no change in this underlying belief to be
observed in the burial customs of the Egyptians during the late
predynastic period. Copper weapons and implements succeed stone
in the graves. All those objects in whose manufacture the new
tools are used show changes of technique and form. It is even
curious to note that some of the older stone and flint objects,
some of the older pots and pans, are still made as a matter of
tradition. The importance of this is not to be overlooked. For
centuries men had used flint knives and they had baked their
bread in flat mud saucers set in the ashes. For the centuries
these flint knives and these cakes with their saucers had been
placed in the graves. Gradually metal knives and better bread
pans displaced these more primitive objects in daily life; but
the older primitive objects were still placed in the graves as a
matter of tradition.

It must be remembered, of course, that these traditional objects
were also in use in ancient traditional ceremonies on earth. The
sacrificial animals were still slaughtered with flint knives. The
old-style cakes were still offered in the holy places. In other
words, life on earth now consisted of ordinary material life and
a traditional life--a life that clung to the forms of a more
primitive civilization as somehow more effective with the divine
powers. This view is closely reflected in the grave furniture;
here, too, were the practical objects and the traditional
ceremonial objects. Life after death is still always the same as
life on earth--with the same physical needs, with the same need