 
Mummys of Ancient Egypt,
the land of the Nile
Delta was the most fertile and powerful land in the ancient times. Ancient Egyptian's
prepared for death in every way they could think to. One of the first things the Egyptians
did to prepare for death was to save money to buy a tomb for their bodies to rest for the
afterlife. (Ancient Egyptian's believed that the afterlife was in the west.. or where no
man dared traveled) After an Egyptian died they were sent to be mummified. Mummification
varied depending on how much the embalmers were paid. If the embalmers were paid a lot to
be embalmed then the deceased Egyptian would be mummified as well as was expected for the
amount paid.
The first attempts of artificial preservation of the dead occurred as
early as 3000 BC. Herodotus, a Greek historian, wrote in the fifth century bc saying that
there were three steps to mummification:
"The most perfect practice is to extract as much of the brain as
possible with an iron hook cannot reach is rinsed out with "drugs". Next the
flank is laid open with a flint knife and the whole contents of abdomen removed. The
cavity is the thoroughly cleansed and washed out with palm wine and again an infusion of
pounded spices. After that it is filled with pure bruised myrrh, cassia and every other
aromatic substance with the exception of frankincense, and sewn up again, after which the
body is placed in natron, covered over entirely for seventy days - never longer.
"When, for reasons of expense, the second quality is called for,
the treatment is different; no incision is made and the intestines are not removed but oil
of cedar injected into the body with a syringe through the anus which is then stopped to
prevent the liquid from escaping. The body is then dry-salted in natron for the prescribed
number of days, on the last of which the oil itself is drained off. The effect of it is so
powerful that as it leaves the body, it brings with it the stomach and intestines in a
liquid state.
"The third method, used for embalming the bodies of the poor, is
simply to clean out the intestines with a purge and keep the body seventy days in
natron."
The incision that the internal organs were removed varied throughout
Egyptian History. One of the major changes happened in the eighteenth century when the
incision moved from one running vertically down the side of the body to one slanting from
the hip bone to the pubic area.
The purification of the deceased was carried out in the ibu, "the
tent of purification". As soon as the person died, the embalmers were called in by a
family member to carry the dead person to the ibu. At the ibu, a rather lengthy ceremony
took place; this ceremony took up to seventy days. The chief or head embalmer was called
the "Controller of the Mysteries" and represented Anubis (Anubis was worshipped
as the inventor of embalming, who had embalmed the dead Osiris, and in this way helping to
preserve him so he was able to live again.) The chief embalmer was assisted by the
"God's Seal Bearer". The reader of the lessons was presented to read the
appropriate spells throughout the procedure. Also, there were a number of wtw, minor
priests who carried out ordinary tasks such as bandaging.
While the
body was at the ibu, it was cleansed thoroughly with water containing the purifying agent
natron. The ritual of cleansing may have symbolized the rebirth of the deceased. Many
depictions survive, including one on the Late Period coffin of Djed-bast-iuef-ankh in the
Hildesheim Museum, West Germany, showing the deceased being cleansed as a blackened
corpse.
The removal of the organs happened after the cleansing of the body.
First the body was taken to the wabet, or "place of embalming", for the removal
of the internal organs. The operation, or the placing of the incision, was done by a
scribe (or they were sometimes called the slicer, or ripper up) with a flint knife. As
part of the ritual, the priest who performed this was chased away with abuse and the
throwing of stones. But once the incision was made, the stomach intestines, lungs and
liver were removed. The kidneys were usually left in place or overlooked as if they were
of little importance. After the removal of the organs, the cavity may have been cleansed
and then filled with temporary stuffing.
The brain was also regularly removed which may have been done at the
ibu. They removed the brain by either a hole that was punched in the thin bone at the top
of the nostrils (the ethmoid bone), or through an incision at the nape of the neck. At
this time a coating of resin was also applied to the face.
Not many mummies still had their internal organs intact in the body,
especially in the Late Period, which had to do with keeping with the least expensive
method of mummification.
About the sixteenth day after the death, (after the cleansing, removal
of organs, and temporary stuffing of the body cavity) desiccation (drying, preserving.)
began. The drying agent used was natron. Natron is a hydrated native sodium carbonate. A
further analysis of several embalmer's caches, natron has been identified as a natural
salt of sodium carbonate and seventeen percent sodium bicarbonate, with some additional
sodium sulfate and sodium chloride, it occurs mainly in the western delta in the Wadi
Natrun, some 40 miles northwest of Cairo. One of the greatest debates in Egyptology came
over just how the natron was inserted into the body of the deceased. On one of the sides
were those who believed that it was used wet, in solution; on the other, those who thought
it was used dry in a bed.
"The accepted view of the desiccation now is that
the body was laid on a bed which sloped gently towards the foot, where a basin caught
anything draining from the body. The finest versions of the bed itself may have been made
of stone with lions carved down the sides, as in the embalming tables of the Apis bulls at
Memphis; or wood; or, in the case of the poor, perhaps simple mats laid on ' the ground.
The thoracic (chest) and abdominal cavities were cleansed, and then were filled with
natron so that the drying process acted from within as well as from without. Finally, the
corpse was totally covered in piles of dry natron."
-'Mummies, Myth and Magic' by Christine El Mahdy-
The length of the desiccation took about seventy days to be completed.
The internal organs were also taken out and treated with resin and
anointed with oils and then were wrapped separately with linen and placed in the tomb.
Where exactly the organs were placed in the tomb depended on the period of time of the
embalming. During the Twenty-First Dynasty, they began to be wrapped in linen and replaced
inside the body cavity. During the Late period they wrapped the viscera and placed it
between the legs of the mummies.
After the body was preserved it was then removed from the natron and
removed from all traces of salt, dried and taken to yet another area. The body was taken
to the per nefer, "the house of beauty". Here, it was re-stuffed with materials
such as resin-soaked linen, more natron, lichen, onion, mud or even sawdust mixed with
other substances. The stuffing that was first put into the mummy was taken out and kept
aside while the body was re-stuffed.
In the house of beauty (per nefer) the a mixture of beeswax, spices and
natron, milk, wine, and juniper oil were put onto the rubbery skin of the mummy, the
quantity and quality of the oils and perfumes depended on mostly how much the embalmers
were paid by the family. The incision that the organs came out of was not sewn or stitched
very often, usually, it was sealed with wax or had a metal plate placed over it. The metal
plate was decorated with a magical symbol for protection. The nostrils and the mouth were
plugged with wax or linen. Later in history, the body was stuffed with to fit the natural
contours of the body. Usually there were pads under the eyes... in the cheeks, etc.
After the
body was completely anointed with the perfumes and oils and new stuffing and pads in the
right places, the body was then often colored. The bodies of men were often colored with
red, the women with yellow. The embalmers then applied henna to the feet. During the
Graeco-Roman period a gold leaf was placed over certain parts of the body, and female
mummies began to have their faces painted with rouged and had their eyes painted. The
basic colors that ancient Egyptians used were red, yellow, blue, and black. To my
knowledge those were the main colors if they are wrong please correct me. Also, the family
began to give the embalmers jewelry to place on the mummy before the bandaging began.
Next came the wrapping of the mummy. Every part of the mummy was wrapped
separately. For instance, the hands, head, arms, feet, legs were all wrapped separately
from the rest of the body. Here is a more detail description:
"The head was first tied in place, with one band around the face
holding the jaw firm, and another wrapped around the head and shoulders to fix the neck.
Then the toes and fingers - and genitals, in the case of men - were wrapped individually
using narrow fabric strips. The arms and legs would be bandaged next, each limb
separately. The torso followed this. Over this and every subsequent layer of wrappings,
amulets or pieces of jewelry would be and then brushed over with melted resins. Resin
protected the mummy by making it stronger and rendering it virtually waterproof. When
first applied, the resins would have varied in colored from gold to dark brown, but after
drying and hardening, they became black and pitch-like. Interaction between residues of
salt on the body and the resins resulted in a brittle glass-like material that produced
rock-hard flesh beneath the bandages. The resins penetrated right through to the body
tissues themselves, and the glassy substances has been identified within many of the body
tissues.
"Now the prepared remains were bandaged from head to foot in layer
upon layer of linen, the arms and legs wrapped close to the body to form the usual mummy
shape. The position of the arms varied greatly from period to period. Sometimes those of
men were extended and the hands placed over the genitals while women's arms might be
straight along the sides of the body or crossed over the chest. Strips either running from
head to foot, or crossed around the shoulders and hips in a figure of eight arrangement
secured each layer of bandages. Smaller strips were bound around the legs and arms. (Many
of the coffin lids were painted with what appeared to be simulated mummy bands.) At each
stage, pads of linen were inserted to ensure that the finished shape would be
satisfactory. Often, the final layer was wrapped around the body and secured in place by
yet more linen bands. From the New Kingdom this final shroud was sometimes dyed red.
During the Twenty-first Dynasty, red leather straps crossed over the shoulders of the
mummy. In the Late period, the body was covered by a net of tubular blue faience
beads."
-"Mummies Myth and Magic" by Christine El Mahdy-
The next and just about last step to mummification is to make the mask
for the mummy. The mask was made out of cartonnage, which is made out of linen or papyrus
reinforced with plaster or resin. It was shaped to fit all the different contours of the
mummy's face so that when it dried it out look and have the shape of the mummy. The
embalmer's then painted and decorated the mask. After the mask was placed over the mummy's
head and shoulders the mummy was put into a series of coffins, sometimes the inner most
coffin was richly decorated and sometimes the outer. After the mummy is placed in the
coffin it is then placed into its tomb where it's most prized and needed possessions were
with him/her. Ancient Egyptians believed that the spirit had to be prepared for life in
the afterworld. Mostly armor, sometimes servants, and pets, gold, and silver were buried
in with the deceased.
-For More Information on the Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddess they
believed in please visit my "Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddess' Page"-
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