?How did the Amazigh deal with the bodies of their dead
The ancient Amazighs inherited different ways of burying the dead. Some of them burned the body, and others buried it in compliance with religious rituals, whether Christian, Jewish or Islamic.
Mubarak Muhammad al-Hasani, a history professor at the University of Constantine in Algeria, believes that the rituals of dealing with the dead among the Amazighs expressed beliefs and cultural legacies that were passed down through generations throughout history.
1. Stripping the body of flesh:
Algerian anthropologist, Junaidi Muhammad Najib, confirms that the Amazighs practiced special rituals in dealing with the dead.
"The first Amazighs used to strip the dead of their flesh completely, just like the first inhabitants of North and South America," says this researcher, who previously worked at Mouloud Mammeri University in the Algerian city of Tizi Ouzou.
In an interview”, Mohamed Najib cites this ancient custom of the Amazighs dealing with the bodies of their dead as evidence of the broken bones and crushed skulls that were discovered in some ancient cemeteries, explaining that many books documented this practice.
On the other hand, this anthropologist highlights that the Amazighs’ relationship with death developed after that, over the ages, and dealing with it became “more realistic, as a natural phenomenon, according to the logic of that period.”
2. Burning the dead:
Another ritual that distinguished the Amazighs’ treatment of corpses was revealed by Mubarak Muhammad al-Hasani, a history professor at the University of Constantine, which was burning.
Al-Hasani explains that archaeological data indicate that the Numidians, the inhabitants of the North African kingdom ruled by the Amazighs between 202 and 46 BC, initially burned the body of the deceased, then began to bury it hundreds of years later.
In an interview,” Mubarak Muhammad al-Hasani explains that research conducted by archaeologists suggests that the culture of cremating bodies was transferred to Numidia through contact with the Phoenicians.
Other books confirm this fact, according to this Algerian researcher in history, considering that “the social awareness of the Amazighs of ancient times did not accommodate religious beliefs,” which is the reason behind “rejecting the logic of death.”
3. Mummification:
Because of their rejection of the idea of death, according to Mubarak Muhammad al-Hasani, the Amazigh resorted to mummifying corpses, relying on a special culture that was not transmitted from the Pharaohs, he says.
"Recent discoveries in Libya confirm the need to reconsider the principle that the Pharaohs were the first to mummify," the university professor adds.
This argument is supported by the discovery of a mummified body in the Acacus Mountains of Libya, called the “Black Mummy,” or “Mohi Gaj” or “Wan Mohajj” in the ancient Amazigh language, which dates back “more than 2,000 years before the discovery of the first mummified body in the Pharaonic civilization.”
Contrary to Mohamed El Hassani, who defends the idea that the Amazighs were not influenced by the Pharaohs regarding the ways of dealing with the dead, the Amazigh researcher and professor of anthropology at the University of Jean Moulin, University of Lyon 3, France, Lounas Ath Yahya, points out that there is a convergence between the traditions of the early Amazighs and the culture of the Pharaohs in this regard.
This researcher believes that the Amazigh's relationship with death has developed over the ages, and has been affected by contact with other human races at times, and by the beginning of the emergence of religions at other times.
4. Burial
Researcher Lounas Ath Yahya points out that the way the Amazighs buried the dead was very similar to the way the heavenly religions came.
The speaker refers to the book “ African Funerals ” by its authors Michael Gender and Joel Nourette, to confirm that there are some Amazighs who used to bury the dead under the ground, but in various ways.
“The Amazighs buried their dead in different ways, on the right and left sides, and this even in the BC period,” the anthropology professor adds.
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