There is definately a parrallel between the mortuary practices of the ancient
Egyptians and the Numenorean's and Gondorian's, but I don't think that its a
direct comparison as such. As far as I'm aware (wiser ones may know
differently) Tolkien was never much interested in the ancient Eqyptians. I
think what we see of the Eqyptians in the Numenorean's comes again from the
human fear of death, something that many is seen in most cultures, certianly
ones that become highly organised and tied to ideas of ownership and sedentism.
Its interesting to note that at first mortuary rights were used more a way of
establishing control (in the landscape of the mind) over the wilderness in
which farmers were trying to settle. Later burial rights becames about
establishing community claims to landscape and cultural memory. There is very
little that shows explicitly that people feared death, and as much as can be
infered of pre-historic religions and what is know of Aboriginal and other
Indigenous religions seems to indicate they view death as part of a natural
cycle, to be respected but not nesscarily feared. It is only once cultures got
really established and rooted into their landscapes (and an idea of linear time
emerges) that we begin to see fear of death emerging, as people begin to
believe that they will lose everything and be forgotten.
I don't know how much of that can really be seen in the developing ideas about
death in the Sil, or how much of it Tolkien knew about or accepted. I think he
understood the human fear of death however, and in all cultures where this fear
of death evolves, similar rights to those of the ancient Egyptins, or the early
Romans, or the Anglo-Saxons, or the Numenoreans, Gondorians or people of Rohan
develop. People who can construct elaborate monuments and riuals, so that even
if they have to die, they personally will be remebered... and they will try and
put off dying for as long as possible!
As for the houses of healing, again, there are parallels with the ancient
Egyptians, but again, I think not directly. The Numenoreans share a medical
knowledge that all fairly advanced cultures do. The Romans were also good
healers, as were many of the early Muslim
civilisations.
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"The Truth is not in the History, the History is in the Truth"...... "...For a given value of true"
qhiparu nayaru uñtas sartañani
