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A mummy is a corpse whose skin and flesh have been preserved by deliberate or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold or dryness, or airlessness.
The best-known mummies are those that have been deliberately embalmed with the specific purpose of preservation, particularly those in ancient Egypt. Egyptians believed the body was home to a person's Ka which was essential in one's afterlife. In Egypt, the bodies were covered in natron to speed up the process of dehydration, and to prevent decomposition.
In China, preserved corpses have been recovered from submerged cypress coffins packed with medicinal herbs.
Mummies formed as a result of naturally occurring environmental conditions, such as extreme cold (Ötzi the Iceman), acid (Tollund Man) or desiccating dryness have been found all over the world. Some of the best-preserved mummies formed under natural conditions date from the Inca period in Peru.
Mummies in Ancient Egypt
In Egypt, the dead were originally not mummified with the extensive process that happened during the first dynasty. The dead were originally buried in reed caskets in the sand. The searing hot sand caused the remains to dry quickly, preventing decomposition. After a while, though, they started constructing wooden tombs, and the extensive process of mummification was made so that the bodies would not decompose in the afterlife. The mummified individual was placed at his/her final resting place through a set of rituals and protocol.
The earliest known 'mummified' individual dates back to approximately 3300 BC, although it is not a 'true' mummy. The body is on display in the British Museum and has been given the nickname of 'Ginger' because he has red hair. Ginger was buried in the hot desert sand with maybe some stones piled on top to prevent the corpse being eaten by jackals. The hot, dry conditions desiccated the body, preventing the muscle and soft tissues from decaying. Ginger was buried with some pottery vessels, which would have held food and drink to sustain him on his long journey to the other world. There are no written records of the religion or gods from that time, and it is not known if it was the intention of the ancient Egyptians that the deceased were being preserved.
However, from the first dynasty onwards, the ancient Egyptians were trying to preserve the bodies of the dead, so their spirit had a body to guide them to the afterlife.
The Egyptians also expanded the practice of mummification to animals. Sacred animals central to cults such as ibis, hawks, and cats were mummified by the thousands.
Egyptian mummification process
Embalmers were given the task to preserve the deceased. Not only did their job require knowledge of human anatomy, they also had to perform rituals at several stages during the process. It is noteworthy that the Egyptians themselves considered embalming so sacred and secret that no record of the process comes from them but rather from foreign observers.
A typical mummification took 70 days in which craftsmen raced to finish the tomb.
The first step in a mummification was the removal of all internal organs which are prone to rapid decay. The brain was removed by breaking the bone at the end of the nose with a chisel and inserting a special hook up the nostrils and into the skull.
Embalmers also removed the stomach, liver, lungs and intestines through a small incision on the left side of the abdomen. Only the heart was left in place. The organs which were removed from the abdomen were stored in so called canopic jars, modelled after the four sons of Horus who would protect the organs, and placed in the tomb during the burial ritual. In later dynasties, these organs were treated and wrapped and returned to the body, but unused canopic jars continued to be placed into tombs. The incision was covered with a metal plate bearing the Eye of Horus (wedjat) which symbolically healed it.
Next, all moisture would be removed from the body, by covering it in natron, a type of salt found on the banks of Lake Wadi Natrun. The result was a dried-out, but recognizable body.
Finally, the body was wrapped in large amounts of linen, some of which contained spells to help the deceased in their passage to the afterlife. After several stages of wrapping, the body would also be coated in warm resin, before wrapping was continued.
To further protect the deceased, magical amulets were placed on specific parts of the body between the layers of wrappings. These included:
Ankh
Scarab
Djed pillar
Pectoral
• Map of Egypt
• Economy of Egypt
See:
• List
of Cities in Egypt
• Cairo
• Sharm
El Sheikh
• King Tut - Tutankhamun
•
Nile
• Egyptian Hieroglyph
• Mummy
• Giza
• Great Sphinx of Giza
• Great Pyramid of Giza
• Pharaoh
• Sea Peoples
• Ramesses III
• Egyptology
• Sarcophagus
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