Oasis in Time: The Egyptian Mummification Process
/Who is my Mummy?
The Egyptian practice of mummification began circa 3500 B.C.E. Its purpose was to preserve the body and prepare the deceased individual for entry into the afterlife. What many people may not know is that Egyptians were not the only ones to mummify individuals.
Other cultures that practiced mummification included Australian Aboriginal, Aztec and Incan civilizations. Some cultures reserved the privilege of mummification for people of high status, while other cultures mummified all individuals after death.
However, the Egyptian civilization is the most well-known for mummification. This may be a result of the arid conditions which were ideal for drying out corpses and helped make the mummification easier.
For Egyptians, this process took on a spiritual meaning as well. The mummification of a body after death was also a way to ensure the deceased individual would pass on to the afterlife. It is believed that the bodies of deceased individuals who came from poor families were sometimes filled with juniper oil to dissolve organs instead of removing the organs as was done in the cases of richer mummies.
On the other hand, pharaohs were buried in ornate coffins in luxurious tombs including the Egyptian pyramids. Their tombs were filled with items that may be of use to them in the afterlife, such as food and tools. Sometimes even servants were buried with the pharaohs. Chillingly, a servant’s last way to serve the pharaoh was to die for him or her.
A 1927 abstract published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine claimed that medicine made from powdered mummies was popular. This is because bitumen was believed to have medicinal properties. But mummies were not, as these people believed, embalmed with bitumen. This belief led to the burning of bodies for “mummy medicine.”
An Arabian proverb states that “Life, like a fire, begins in smoke and ends in ashes.” This may not be true for all people, but these people’s lives certainly ended in ashes after their mummified bodies were burned.
An image of art depicted on the North side of King tut’s tomb, following its restoration. IMage courtesy of history.com.
The pharaoh Tutankhamun — a.k.a. King Tut — is perhaps the most famous mummy. His body was found in 1922 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter.
Legend has it that disturbing the resting place of a mummy leads to death. When people died of unnatural causes in Carter’s expedition, many speculated that this was a result of Carter’s disturbance of Tut’s tomb.
Many mummies were buried with amulets in their possession, as the amulets were believed to offer protection to the individual’s soul after death. Some pharaoh’s pets were buried along with them to accompany the pharaoh in the afterlife.
Ancient Egyptian mummification was so successful that many features of individuals can still be made out by looking at the preserved mummy.
What happened to my Mummy?
The entire mummification process would usually take around 70 days and priests, known as embalmers, would help perform this process. First, all internal organs that are prone to decay were removed from the body. The brain was removed by placing special hooked instruments in the nostril and pulling out pieces of brain tissue. If done improperly, disfigurement of the face was almost inevitable.
Organs contained near the chest were removed via an incision made on the left side of the abdomen. The organs were put in special containers known as canopic jars and buried alongside the mummy. The heart, where it was believed the soul resided, was the only organ that was kept inside the mummy’s body.
The Canopic Jar of an Egyptian Named Ruiu. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan museum of art.
Natron, a type of salt, was sprinkled over the body. Packets of the salt were also inserted into the body to remove all moisture. The natron was removed from the body and residuals were lightly washed off once the drying was complete. Sunken parts of the body were filled in with linen and artificial eyes were sometimes added to the mummies to make them look as lifelike as possible.
The final step in mummifying the body was to wrap the entire body in linen, often requiring hundreds of yards of linen.
For more information on Egyptian mummification, visit BBC.
Liam Konrad
Liam is an avid reader, with a thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn from our past. He is often found exploring other worlds during his time spent reading. He is currently a second-year student in the Professional Writing program at Algonquin College.
