The most common form of a mortuary cult is a tomb with gravestone which is visited by the bereaved frequently.
A further, well known, form of a mortuary cult is a shrine with a picture or bust of the deceased, which is also visited and cared frequently.
Another, more unusual, form of mortuary cult is an urn with ash, deposed at the home of the yet-living bereaved.
To hold the power of the soul and consciousness up eternally, the Egyptians erected shrines (so-called House-of-the-Ka) and mortuary temples, wherein they performed prayers and ceremonies over several dynasties.
Early private tombs of the first four dynasties contained so-called slab steles with the stylized depiction of the deceased, sitting on an offering table.
[3] The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death and that the body was needed to house the Ba and shadow, whenever they would visit the world of the living.
All removed organs were burnt in early times, from the late Old Kingdom onward the embalmers dried and put them in special vessels called canopic jars.
To strengthen the memorising effect of a mortuary cult the Ancient Romans placed palatial stelae at the burial site.
The inscriptions on the stelae were full of hymns and glorifications in attempt to hold up an always positive picture of the deceased.
According to travelling reports from the 17th century the Moai were memorial statues of deceased kings, noblemen and priests.