[terryf]

Jeez, they're dead. Who cares what happens after you're dead?

[woodruffw]

I would probably care a little if my country’s historical record (in the form of human and animal bodies) was turned into paint.

(You can turn me into paint when I’m dead, but I don’t think it takes a huge stretch to understand why nobody makes paint out of mummies anymore.)

[kfichter]

Given the extensive effort required to mummify someone, I suspect these people cared!

[terryf]

True, there was extensive effort, but wasn't the effort geared towards providing the deceased god a path back to the heavens or wherever they had come from?

So, presumably after they had ascended with the help of the burial provisions, the remainder of the body was irrelevant?

But perhaps this part was not clearly defined in the teachings.

[gweinberg]

I don't think so. Consider the effort to hide tombs full of gold and jewels. If the humidification was just a temporary expedient, wouldn't it make sense to loot the tombs once the soul had passed on, as a general policy?

I think they expected to be bodily resurrected at some future date. I think a lot of people today expect to be bodily resurrected at some future date.