الفهرس 
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Abstract
It is evident that this studyThe significance of this study is demonstrated in the fact that it does not only
study heads in ancient Egypt, but it also examines and considers their religious
and metaphorical significances in textual and iconographic sources in various
monuments as well as funerary, magical, mythical, medical and religious texts.
The thesis particularly considers decapitation as a punishment for both the living
and the dead. Furthermore, it studies the decapitated deities and the divine
decapitators.
This thesis considers the use of sources from a wide historical, monumental and
textual scope. It studies the head and its significance during the Old Kingdom
through iconographic sources represented in scenes on walls of tombs as well as
textual sources represented in the Pyramid Texts. It also studies the head during
the Middle Kingdom through iconographic sources and textual sources
represented in the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Two Ways. Furthermore, it
examines the heads during New Kingdom through iconographic sources as well
as texts in the books of the afterlife and notably the Amduat, the Book of the
Dead, and the Book of Gates.
The scenes included in this thesis form patterns in different coherent groups
related to each other. All the scenes are presented in the form of documents,
which have been arranged in a chronological order. There are no religious scenes
of decapitation dating from the Old Kingdom. The religious scenes of
decapitation are from the royal and the private tombs. demonstrates the importance of the head and the fear
of losing it in the afterlife. The head has four of the human body’s five main
senses, namely sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Furthermore, it shares the fifth
sense, touch. Therefore, the loss of the head was one of the most feared destinies
in the afterlife. Thus, the final consequence of decapitation was a second death.
This dissertation present significant conclusions of the study of the head in
ancient Egypt.
The theme of decapitation is attested in the earliest Egyptian iconography
such as the Narmer Palette and, later, it became common for the royal
tradition.
Private threat-formulae were inscribed on walls of tombs, and they were used
in execration magic, as decapitation was executed as a commonly accepted
way of dealing with enemies and trespassers.
The term Hsq used to denote the act of decapitation originally describe the
method of execution intended for the king’s enemies who were usually
foreigners. This punishment was probably reserved for people who were
deprived of their status for specific serious reasons.
During the Old Kingdom, the term Hsq was attested numerous times in the
Pyramid Texts.
The negative consequences of decapitation and the necessity of preserving the
head knotted onto the body were frequently discussed in the books of the
afterlife including the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, the Book of the Dead,
the Book of Amduat, etc.
The decapitation was regarded as a “Second death” which probably
terminated hopes for the afterlife.
The way of slaughtering the sacrificial animals did not change throughout the
ancient Egyptian history. The slaughterers always begin slaughtering by
cutting through the animal’s throat.