Mummification

The mummy is the corpse of a person or an animal that had been preserved after death. At earliest ancient Egypt bodies were buried in pits in the desert, so the heat and the dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies creating natural mummies. They then began to put the bodies in coffins to protect them from wild animals in the desert. But they found that the bodies which were placed in coffins decayed quickly because they were not exposed to the heat and dryness of the sand. Over many centuries the ancient Egyptians developed a method of preserving bodies. This method included embalming the bodies and wrapping them in strips of linen. This process is called mummification.

The art of mummification included many steps: first the corpse was washed and purified. Then the deceased person's inner organs were removed, by cutting a slit in the left side of the body to remove the intestines, liver, stomach and lungs. The organs were embalmed using natron which dried out the organs, and then each organ was wrapped using strips of linen and put in a canopic jar. After that the corpse cavity was stuffed with natron, then the body was completely covered with natron, and after about forty days the natron was removed to reveal a dried shrunken body. After another cleaning, the body was rubbed with a kind of ointment to help in preserving the skin. The head and the body cavity were stuffed with packing. Then the mummy was prepared for bandaging. First the cut in the side of the body was sewn up and covered with a patching representing the protective eye of Horus. The body was adorned with gold and jewels. Then the fingers and toes were covered with gold caps and wrapped with narrow strips of linen. After that the legs and arms were wrapped. And the entire corpse was wrapped with a depth of about 20 layers and a resin was used to glue the layers together. The head was covered with a mummy mask. After the mummy was prepared it was time for the funeral.

The mummification was related to beliefs concerning the afterlife. At first only pharaohs were mummified. Later their retinues were also mummified. Finally the enormous animals that were considered sacred like cats and dogs were embalmed. Members of the nobility were often mummified. And occasionally common people were mummified.

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