Mummification has been popularized by modern media through movies, television shows, even games. But how does mummification done? Sure you can cite what was seen and said in “The Mummy” movie, although it is just a movie and as such there are many false facts. In this blog I will discuss the ancient holy ritual of mummification. First of all, why did the ancient Egyptian's go through mummification.
The reason for it was because they believed that life was just a preparation for death and the after life. This is why in tombs with mummy's they had their personal belongings along with things that would help them in the underworld to get to the afterlife. It is because of inscriptions and hieroglyphs that we are able to know so much about ancient Egyptian culture. Almost everything we know about ancient Egypt comes from the life after death. And the reason they mummified the pharaohs is because if the body needs to get up again, it has to be preserved.
No one really knows how the ancient Egyptian's came up with mummification, but the theory is that they saw it a lot. Not man made mummification’s, but naturally occurring ones. When you live in a country where most of it is dry and sandy, it is very easy to get mummified by the elements. It would have been very easy for the ancient Egyptian's to put their pharaoh out into the sand, but they could not. Reason being is that the pharaoh was a god on earth for them. For example, the person who was in charge of making the incisions (can any body guess what they cut with? That is right! They used sharpened obsidian) on the body had stone thrown at them because it was against the ancient Egyptian religion to defile the body; nevertheless a body of a god.
Now the method of removing the brain has simplified as to just “sticking a red hot poker up the nose, scramble things around a bit, and rip it all through your nostrils,” but it is more complicated that that. First they had to break the bone that is in between the nostrils and the brain. After doing that they had the head upside down and poured hot tree sap into the cranium through the nose. Now they stick a poker into the head to spin the sap and the brain around, this made the next step easier; the actual removal of the brain. This one took some time. They had to put a white cloth into it and kept doing it til everything was out an the last cloth came out white.
The removal of the organs was much easier but this one took days to get the body ready for mummification. Of course, a dead body in the hot temperatures of Egypt would surely smell, this is why mummification took place in a tent. Back to the internal organs. As I said the removal of organs was easier; after removed they were placed in canopic jars. These jars had the heads of different gods to protect the organ that was put into it. Hapy got the lungs, Duamutef the stomach, Qebehsenuef the intestines, and Imset the liver. (examples below) You must be wondering, who got the heart? No one did, the heart was the only organ not removed; it was believed the organ that you thought with was the heart, and the pharaoh needed thought to get trough the underworld. When abdominal cavity was empty It was washed with Plamwine.
The reason for it was because they believed that life was just a preparation for death and the after life. This is why in tombs with mummy's they had their personal belongings along with things that would help them in the underworld to get to the afterlife. It is because of inscriptions and hieroglyphs that we are able to know so much about ancient Egyptian culture. Almost everything we know about ancient Egypt comes from the life after death. And the reason they mummified the pharaohs is because if the body needs to get up again, it has to be preserved.
No one really knows how the ancient Egyptian's came up with mummification, but the theory is that they saw it a lot. Not man made mummification’s, but naturally occurring ones. When you live in a country where most of it is dry and sandy, it is very easy to get mummified by the elements. It would have been very easy for the ancient Egyptian's to put their pharaoh out into the sand, but they could not. Reason being is that the pharaoh was a god on earth for them. For example, the person who was in charge of making the incisions (can any body guess what they cut with? That is right! They used sharpened obsidian) on the body had stone thrown at them because it was against the ancient Egyptian religion to defile the body; nevertheless a body of a god.
Now the method of removing the brain has simplified as to just “sticking a red hot poker up the nose, scramble things around a bit, and rip it all through your nostrils,” but it is more complicated that that. First they had to break the bone that is in between the nostrils and the brain. After doing that they had the head upside down and poured hot tree sap into the cranium through the nose. Now they stick a poker into the head to spin the sap and the brain around, this made the next step easier; the actual removal of the brain. This one took some time. They had to put a white cloth into it and kept doing it til everything was out an the last cloth came out white.
The removal of the organs was much easier but this one took days to get the body ready for mummification. Of course, a dead body in the hot temperatures of Egypt would surely smell, this is why mummification took place in a tent. Back to the internal organs. As I said the removal of organs was easier; after removed they were placed in canopic jars. These jars had the heads of different gods to protect the organ that was put into it. Hapy got the lungs, Duamutef the stomach, Qebehsenuef the intestines, and Imset the liver. (examples below) You must be wondering, who got the heart? No one did, the heart was the only organ not removed; it was believed the organ that you thought with was the heart, and the pharaoh needed thought to get trough the underworld. When abdominal cavity was empty It was washed with Plamwine.
After the organs were removed, they placed many packs of natrin (sodium carbonate, and sodium bicarbonate, and sodium chloride) into them to help dry out the body. When they did that they would proceed to covering the entire body with natrin. It took 35 days for a mummy to look like, well, a mummy. For those 35 days they would leave it alone, only having priests come by to “feed the soul,” after those 35 days there was just enough moisture left in the body to bed the arms across the chest. All that was left was to wrap it, of which they used linen, and in between certain levels of it they would leave charms that would help the pharaoh in the after life. Then into the first anthropoid sarcophagus, made of wood, it went. I say first because there were several, one going into the other, similar to nesting dolls. The one on the top had a likeness to who was buried in it, a funeral mask of sort. And this top one had the heaviest of all the lids that come after it. This is why, you need not worry of mummies coming back from the dead, if they did, they would have to spend the rest of their “life” under a heavy lid.
Please feel free to leave me a comment either about this blog or on an anthropological subject you would like me to cover.
Please feel free to leave me a comment either about this blog or on an anthropological subject you would like me to cover.
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