identification bull with the funerary practice was widespread among Nilotic societies, those of the "Fertile Crescent "means bordering the Mediterranean, India, China and even in the Far East, particularly in the islands of Indonesia, which is still practiced.
In all these societies existed and developed various forms of burial, funeral rites, customs, different in relation to the death, in which the bull's presence was evident in a significant way.
From the beginning, to bring out the feeling and awareness of a possible rebirth after death, the people of the Upper Palaeolithic, or early Neolithic, adopted various forms of burial, burials, preparation and attention to the body of the deceased, funeral rites etc. ., in whose liturgy took an active part of the bull's presence as a protector of the deceased, who was to accompany and protect the uncertain journey to the far back.
evidenced That relationship is found and documented in the archaeological discoveries of bygone burials, where the presence of bull horns as part of funerary equipment, the paintings of bulls or bucráneos carved on the walls of tombs, testify in an unequivocal manner the presence of the bull in the orbit funeral. Entering
descriptive detail our tour of the presence of the bull in the area funeral home to learn about the diversity of different ceremonies and funerals to be dispensed to the deceased, is forced to go back to the beginning of the existence of a company referred to principle. To do this, without going into theological considerations, but rather the purely narrative of sociological fact, we will in some geographical areas, with more or less sake of data, the fact that tauro-funeral takes on a role.
It is no coincidence that our journey in search of different forms of burial, starting with the countries washed by the mighty Nile, where the funerary cults, along with the preparation
and mummification of the body of the deceased, reached such elaborate rituals as sumptuous. It is known that since ancient times, Egypt has been considered the land of graves, cemeteries and pyramids, which ultimately are nothing more than monumental tombs. Moreover, if we follow the upper reaches of the Nile we enter between Nubian villages, which houses huge number of burial mounds and pyramids hypogea funeral, unknown to the general public and smaller than the Egyptians but three times more numerous, whose funeral rites similar enjoyed sumptuous and elaborate ritual as the Egyptians.
Egypt was the quintessential country obsessed with death. Among the many funeral rites were performed, the funeral feeling what we find recorded from an early age, where it was believed that the pharaohs, when they die, joined the god Ra, " the Sun", whom the goddess Nut, " Heaven", the personification of the sky, lit up at dawn in a golden calf. From there they came to link and identify that cow goddess of the sarcophagus chamber, so that the deceased was awaiting its renewal and resurrection in the body of his mother.
I say: Hail to thee!, Save yourself, your calf ... Emerging
Ocean Sky. "
In all these societies existed and developed various forms of burial, funeral rites, customs, different in relation to the death, in which the bull's presence was evident in a significant way.
From the beginning, to bring out the feeling and awareness of a possible rebirth after death, the people of the Upper Palaeolithic, or early Neolithic, adopted various forms of burial, burials, preparation and attention to the body of the deceased, funeral rites etc. ., in whose liturgy took an active part of the bull's presence as a protector of the deceased, who was to accompany and protect the uncertain journey to the far back.
evidenced That relationship is found and documented in the archaeological discoveries of bygone burials, where the presence of bull horns as part of funerary equipment, the paintings of bulls or bucráneos carved on the walls of tombs, testify in an unequivocal manner the presence of the bull in the orbit funeral. Entering
descriptive detail our tour of the presence of the bull in the area funeral home to learn about the diversity of different ceremonies and funerals to be dispensed to the deceased, is forced to go back to the beginning of the existence of a company referred to principle. To do this, without going into theological considerations, but rather the purely narrative of sociological fact, we will in some geographical areas, with more or less sake of data, the fact that tauro-funeral takes on a role.
It is no coincidence that our journey in search of different forms of burial, starting with the countries washed by the mighty Nile, where the funerary cults, along with the preparation
and mummification of the body of the deceased, reached such elaborate rituals as sumptuous. It is known that since ancient times, Egypt has been considered the land of graves, cemeteries and pyramids, which ultimately are nothing more than monumental tombs. Moreover, if we follow the upper reaches of the Nile we enter between Nubian villages, which houses huge number of burial mounds and pyramids hypogea funeral, unknown to the general public and smaller than the Egyptians but three times more numerous, whose funeral rites similar enjoyed sumptuous and elaborate ritual as the Egyptians. 
Geb, the earth god, was the "Toro " of the sky goddess Nut. Sun also became a great wild bull, a cow in the sky and the sun rising in a calf born every morning. In a hymn to the sun, reflected in the texts of the Pyramids, this last image is introduced:
" Highlander adore. I say: Hail to thee!, Save yourself, your calf ... Emerging
Ocean Sky. "
Your mother Nut speaks and extends his hand to greet :
"have been nursed (by me)" (1)
The continuing concern of the Egyptians for the existence of life after death, evidenced by an inscription on the sarcophagus of the pharaoh Teti (from VI Dynasty, 2323-2291 BC), which fully appreciates the identification of the goddess Nut with 
coffin, which reads:
"'ve been given your mother Nut on behalf of burial;
Te has enveloped and embraced in his name coffin
have been brought to her, on behalf of grave. "(2)
This belief in the power generator life goddess is revealed in another hymn, the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Pepi I (Sixth Dynasty 2289-2255 BC), which reads: "Pepi Transfigure within you lest he die." (3)
coffin, which reads: "'ve been given your mother Nut on behalf of burial;
Te has enveloped and embraced in his name coffin
have been brought to her, on behalf of grave. "(2)
This belief in the power generator life goddess is revealed in another hymn, the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Pepi I (Sixth Dynasty 2289-2255 BC), which reads: "Pepi Transfigure within you lest he die." (3)
And in another side of the sarcophagus figure:
"... this Pepi introduces you as a star
immortal." (4)
"... this Pepi introduces you as a star
immortal." (4)
In this revival by the goddess Nut, usually made in the sphere of the sun, although sometimes happened that was made by the stars:
"Oh A (another name of Teti), you are that big star, the Companion of Orion, which crosses the
Orion sky surfing
And Hell with Osiris. Sales
on the eastern side of Heaven,
Renovated in your time, your time rejuvenated.
Nut has borne you with Orion ... "(5)
"Oh A (another name of Teti), you are that big star, the Companion of Orion, which crosses the
Orion sky surfing
And Hell with Osiris. Sales
on the eastern side of Heaven,
Renovated in your time, your time rejuvenated.
Nut has borne you with Orion ... "(5)
Although not often transfigured the king went down to Hell, the risk involved, is the bull of heaven to protect it:
"... You go through your transfiguration Abydos in this
that God commands you to do.
You have blazed a trail in Hell, the place
Where is Orion (6).
is well documented that during the V and VI dynasties (2465-2152 BC) were written on texts aspirations the walls of the sarcophagus, even to the XVIII Dynasty (1550-1307 BC), which made paintings of the goddess Nut, who covered the inside of the caskets of royal blood characters.
These pictorial inside the sarcophagus, and significance surrounding the belly of the goddess Nut and the association of the sun as dawn golden calf, also justifies the practice of burial within the skin of a bull or cow, considered as the belly of the goddess, which were held in large parts of Africa and others as discussed below.
The Egyptian belief understood that preparations for the burial were to introduce the body of the dead king into the womb, whose act would follow the birth and rebirth in the afterlife. The oldest Egyptian precedent and prior to Apis and Mnevis or Merur, bulls PTHA related to the gods Osiris or Ra and Ra-Atum, respectively, the expression of "the great slain " which in certain places designated by Toro divine. In the ritual beheading of the divine bull, the head was placed on the holy pillar of the temple of Heliopolis and revitalizing skin served as a vehicle of the deceased wrapped in it. (7)
Another funeral bull meanings found in the Anti assimilation of God (responsible for monitoring navigation of the solar boat), which sometimes represented as a black bull's skin subject to a mast, as support, and supported in a kind of mortar, sometimes as a black bull with a white spot on the forehead or a cowhide . Under the funerary aspect related to the deceased, representing the old cow skins in which the dead were buried, establishing a parallelism between skin Taurica and resurrection of the deceased in the afterlife.
tauromorfas heads also were used to adorn the stern of the boat menfita the god Sokar, god of the dead in the Memphis area, as happened with the boat of Osiris, or decorating the tops of the vessels "Canopic " containing the viscera of the deceased, whose practice has been documented from the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, is further proof of the assignment of bull funeral world.
Among the many manifestations of this partnership between the bull and the world funeral, documented in the Egyptian world since ancient times, we can not forget about the association of the bull Apis with Osiris (the God funeral par excellence), which is transformed by dying on a funerary god. Under the name of Osiris-Apis or Ser-Apis ruled the world of the dead and the bull itself was being embalmed and buried in special tombs or " Serapeum " along with the usual to use as a bull sarcophagi, which starts from the earliest times, as revealed in a caption Diodorus of Sicily (91-3 BC): "... dead Osiris, the soul went to it and, therefore, continues to this day always moving his successors in their statements, others say that, after the death of Osiris at the hands of Typhon (referring to Seth), Isis after Having gathered the members, put them in an edible timber, putting fine linen around ...".
"... You go through your transfiguration Abydos in this
that God commands you to do.
You have blazed a trail in Hell, the place
Where is Orion (6).
is well documented that during the V and VI dynasties (2465-2152 BC) were written on texts aspirations the walls of the sarcophagus, even to the XVIII Dynasty (1550-1307 BC), which made paintings of the goddess Nut, who covered the inside of the caskets of royal blood characters.
These pictorial inside the sarcophagus, and significance surrounding the belly of the goddess Nut and the association of the sun as dawn golden calf, also justifies the practice of burial within the skin of a bull or cow, considered as the belly of the goddess, which were held in large parts of Africa and others as discussed below.
The Egyptian belief understood that preparations for the burial were to introduce the body of the dead king into the womb, whose act would follow the birth and rebirth in the afterlife. The oldest Egyptian precedent and prior to Apis and Mnevis or Merur, bulls PTHA related to the gods Osiris or Ra and Ra-Atum, respectively, the expression of "the great slain " which in certain places designated by Toro divine. In the ritual beheading of the divine bull, the head was placed on the holy pillar of the temple of Heliopolis and revitalizing skin served as a vehicle of the deceased wrapped in it. (7)
Another funeral bull meanings found in the Anti assimilation of God (responsible for monitoring navigation of the solar boat), which sometimes represented as a black bull's skin subject to a mast, as support, and supported in a kind of mortar, sometimes as a black bull with a white spot on the forehead or a cowhide . Under the funerary aspect related to the deceased, representing the old cow skins in which the dead were buried, establishing a parallelism between skin Taurica and resurrection of the deceased in the afterlife.
tauromorfas heads also were used to adorn the stern of the boat menfita the god Sokar, god of the dead in the Memphis area, as happened with the boat of Osiris, or decorating the tops of the vessels "Canopic " containing the viscera of the deceased, whose practice has been documented from the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, is further proof of the assignment of bull funeral world.
Among the many manifestations of this partnership between the bull and the world funeral, documented in the Egyptian world since ancient times, we can not forget about the association of the bull Apis with Osiris (the God funeral par excellence), which is transformed by dying on a funerary god. Under the name of Osiris-Apis or Ser-Apis ruled the world of the dead and the bull itself was being embalmed and buried in special tombs or " Serapeum " along with the usual to use as a bull sarcophagi, which starts from the earliest times, as revealed in a caption Diodorus of Sicily (91-3 BC): "... dead Osiris, the soul went to it and, therefore, continues to this day always moving his successors in their statements, others say that, after the death of Osiris at the hands of Typhon (referring to Seth), Isis after Having gathered the members, put them in an edible timber, putting fine linen around ...".
annual ceremonies to commemorate the divine fratricide, there was a wooden cow that was carried in the procession of Osiris, whose interior is believed that was the mummy of the god. In footnote 379 of the translator Francisco Parreu Alas says: "They are attested sarcophagi shaped cow or a cow painted (the goddess Nut) and there was a wooden cow carried in the procession of Osiris, whose interior is believed that was the mummy of the god ... "(8)
Herodotus gives us also a beautiful story of such burials to describe the daughter of Pharaoh Menkaure (2490-2472 BC, the constructor of the third pyramid at Saqqara in ancient Memphis), within a gilded wooden sarcophagus in the form of cows and that he himself claimed to have seen, "... to Menkaure, he says, was the first misfortune of his daughter who died. Afflicted by misfortune and eager to bury her daughter with extraordinary magnificence, he ordered a wooden cow, empty, brown did, and she buried her dead daughter. This cow was not covered with soil, but is in the city of Sais, placed in a room decorated the royal palace, and next to it burned incense of all kinds throughout the day .... The cow is entirely hidden under a cloak of purple, minus the head and neck displayed gold with a thick layer of gold, and between the horns is an imitation gold solar disk. And the cow is not standing, but kneeling its size is a big cow alive. Every year the cow take to light the room, saying that the young man asked his father died Mikerinos the grace to see the sun once a year . (9) 
We can not finish the references Egyptian funeral, not to mention one of the three sources of knowledge of ancient Egypt as the "Book of the Dead ." In this text we find another funeral association and use of the bull in the funeral rites to tell " The opening of the mouth of the deceased " Azuela well with the instrument of Anubis, or by entering at the mouth of a dead man's testicles bull slaughtered in the belief that the deceased reinstating the use of language in the afterlife. After dismembering the victim offered to the dead by their relatives and friends, was deposited with the mummy " the thigh and the heart of a slaughtered animal which concealed the soul of the deceased ." The Book of the Dead was written on gazelle skin and found in the temple of Dendera, whose antiquity dates back to 1500 BC 
Osiris is called "Bull of the West " and invoked in almost every sentence, in several passages of the Book of the Dead. In the chapter that tells the formula to install the funeral bed, in recounting the excellence the deceased is said "...¡ are pure, you are pure! The front part (your body) is pure (y) subsequent (also) is pure (has been prepared) with natron, frankincense, fresh water (y) resin, has been purified milk Apis bull ... "(10)
Following the upward course of the Nile, we are curious rituals practiced in Sudan, among the Shilluk, people who live cattle rancher north of Khartoum on the White Nile ".. the king was strangled and buried with a virgin living at his side. When the two bodies rotted, their bones were placed in the skin of a bull. A year later was named the new king and the tomb of his predecessor, the cattle were stabbed to death hundreds . " After the ceremony finished handing the flesh of bulls slaughtered between those present at the ceremony, where the animals were butchered without skinning. (11)
Similarly, in another Sudanese people, the Dinka, dedicated to raising cattle, each village separates their flocks an ox, the strongest, who is engaged epic songs, as among the people of these villages cattle have reached almost religious value to the point that they do not sacrifice unless the occasion of parties and celebrations. The ox is considered selected B
EJU sacred town, which will come to offer sacrifices in other animals.
These people performed a curious rite of passage into puberty, " when the boy entered the class of young, by age, the boy's father presents his son with a bull, which receives the same name as the boy. Such is the bond between them spend hours singing and playing with his bull and who will be sacrificed if the boy dies. In her tomb be placed animal horns. " In presenting the ox horns adorn him, so as to resemble the holy town of Ox (12).
Following the upward course of the Nile, we are curious rituals practiced in Sudan, among the Shilluk, people who live cattle rancher north of Khartoum on the White Nile ".. the king was strangled and buried with a virgin living at his side. When the two bodies rotted, their bones were placed in the skin of a bull. A year later was named the new king and the tomb of his predecessor, the cattle were stabbed to death hundreds . " After the ceremony finished handing the flesh of bulls slaughtered between those present at the ceremony, where the animals were butchered without skinning. (11)
Similarly, in another Sudanese people, the Dinka, dedicated to raising cattle, each village separates their flocks an ox, the strongest, who is engaged epic songs, as among the people of these villages cattle have reached almost religious value to the point that they do not sacrifice unless the occasion of parties and celebrations. The ox is considered selected B
EJU sacred town, which will come to offer sacrifices in other animals. These people performed a curious rite of passage into puberty, " when the boy entered the class of young, by age, the boy's father presents his son with a bull, which receives the same name as the boy. Such is the bond between them spend hours singing and playing with his bull and who will be sacrificed if the boy dies. In her tomb be placed animal horns. " In presenting the ox horns adorn him, so as to resemble the holy town of Ox (12).
To the south, in the area marked by the ruins of the great temple stone of Zimbabwe, Matabeleland, ritual regicide was practiced until 1810. The priests consulted the stars and the sacred oracle every four years, and undoubtedly, the verdict would be death for the king. The custom was that "... king's first wife, who had helped start the first sacred fire of his reign, was strangled with a rope made of bull leg tendon. The bottleneck should take place in a new moon night. On the fourth day the body was placed in a fetal position, wrapped in a cloth so as to excel the thumb and the tips of the nails and then wrapped in fresh skin of a black bull with a white mark on his forehead . "
would have some relationship, or relationship related, this skin with skin Anti representative of the Egyptian god, mentioned above?.
would have some relationship, or relationship related, this skin with skin Anti representative of the Egyptian god, mentioned above?.
To complete this tour of the Nilotic peoples, we find another curious ritual performed the Bayankole "... when a king dies, his body wrapped in the skin of a cow just died, after washing with milk the real body ... and even make the cattle involved in the duel, separating cows from their calves to that facilities and melancholy lowing launch. "(13)
For the Ga tribe in Ghana, funerals are a time for mourning, but also celebration. The 
s Ga believe that when a loved one dies passes to another life, and make sure to do it with style. Honor their dead with colorful coffins commemorating the deceased's lifestyle. The coffins are designed to represent aspects of the life of the dead person: a car if it was a driver, a fish for fishermen and a sewing machine for a seamstress. They can also symbolize the vices of the deceased, as a bottle of beer or a cigarette.
s Ga believe that when a loved one dies passes to another life, and make sure to do it with style. Honor their dead with colorful coffins commemorating the deceased's lifestyle. The coffins are designed to represent aspects of the life of the dead person: a car if it was a driver, a fish for fishermen and a sewing machine for a seamstress. They can also symbolize the vices of the deceased, as a bottle of beer or a cigarette. The practice of participation of livestock in the actual funeral is represented in many temples and papyri, as well as being attested to their presence in the Pyramid Texts (c. 2350 BC), where the dead king became Osiris and aspiration which reads:
"Heaven Speaks (... in thunder?) earth shaking,
for fear of you, Osiris, when you climb .
far away Oh, dairy cows,
far away Oh, lactating cows, go to him!;
lloradle, praise, sing your song when you ascend plaintive.
"Heaven Speaks (... in thunder?) earth shaking,
for fear of you, Osiris, when you climb .
far away Oh, dairy cows,
far away Oh, lactating cows, go to him!;
lloradle, praise, sing your song when you ascend plaintive.
He goes to heaven among the gods, his brothers. "(14) 
As you have seen, we can not stop at recounting the elaborate funeral ritual or ceremonial too numerous to describe . Know that after death, the deceased was subjected to the operations of the mummification in "Purification Shop", where he received funeral offerings. The funeral itself, beginning with the formation of the party, crossing the Nile, rising to the grave, reading the endless litany by priests and relatives of the deceased, the opening of the mouth of the deceased, farewell to the mummy and funeral food. Not forgetting the obligatory accompaniment of musicians, mourners, their faces covered with mud, bare chest, clothes torn and doleful cattle bellow just described. All this ceremony could reach last up to two months. Therefore, suspend the account to which we return here in the next chapter. Plácido González Hermoso.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: (1) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods" Edit.1988
Alliance (2) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Text of the Pyramids, 616 df.
(3) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Pyramids
781 b (4) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Text of the Pyramids
782 (5) .- Henri Frankfort, "Reyes and Gods "Pyramid Texts
882 (6) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Text of the Pyramids
883 (7) .- Linacero Cristina Delgado, "El Toro in the Mediterranean"
(8) .- Diodorus Siculus, "Historical Library"
(9) .- Herodotus, " Histories, Book II
(10) .- Albert Champdor .- "The Egyptian Book of the Dead"
(11) Mircea Eliade .- .- "History of the beliefs and religious ideas" Volume IV.
(12) .- Francesc Lluís Cardona, "African Mythology and legends"
(13) .- Henri Frankfort "Kings and Gods, Alianza Editorial
1988 (14) .- 549-50 Pyramid Texts, Henri Frankfort," Reyes and Gods "
BIBLIOGRAPHY: (1) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods" Edit.1988
Alliance (2) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Text of the Pyramids, 616 df.
(3) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Pyramids
781 b (4) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Text of the Pyramids
782 (5) .- Henri Frankfort, "Reyes and Gods "Pyramid Texts
882 (6) .- Henri Frankfort, "Kings and Gods": Text of the Pyramids
883 (7) .- Linacero Cristina Delgado, "El Toro in the Mediterranean"
(8) .- Diodorus Siculus, "Historical Library"
(9) .- Herodotus, " Histories, Book II
(10) .- Albert Champdor .- "The Egyptian Book of the Dead"
(11) Mircea Eliade .- .- "History of the beliefs and religious ideas" Volume IV.
(12) .- Francesc Lluís Cardona, "African Mythology and legends"
(13) .- Henri Frankfort "Kings and Gods, Alianza Editorial
1988 (14) .- 549-50 Pyramid Texts, Henri Frankfort," Reyes and Gods "
