The Mummification Process

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Egyptian Mummification site  and Second Great Mummification Site

            Sure everyone knows about the Egyptians, known for the great pyramids and the ancient artifacts they left behind, and the famous river they lived on the Nile , and the mummies. Mummies tend to be ridiculed for the “curses” that supposedly still hang around the crypt and the mummy itself.  But people never think about what it really takes to make a mummy and hopefully these following paragraphs will give everyone a bigger idea at exactly how these famous artifacts were made.

            The process all begins with the deceased body being brought to a funeral tent. Usually the people made into mummies were the pharaoh himself or high nobles who had the money or trade goods and could afford such a luxury. Some people ask what is so great about having your body preserved. But it is stated in the book of the dead that in order for ones Ka to come back and walk the earth he still needed a host body to walk around  which is where preserving the body of the living must come in.

            Once the body has been brought to the funeral tent the first job is to remove the bodily fluids from the deceased body because it would cause the body to rot to keep such a vile liquid in the body. First a hook is inserted into the nostrils to break the cartilage of the nose, then once the hook has been inserted you draw out the brain in chunks or you move the hook around inside the brain cavity to reduce the brain to a fine liquid, then the body is flipped upside down so the brain is drained out into a basket or some jar, since the brain had no value to the Egyptians they discarded the brain. Then came the job of removing all the organs. A cut running along the side of the body was made by one single person, after word that the person was thrown out of the tent in great ceremony for defiling the body of the deceased. Even though they only did the stoning for the ceremony to the gods to show that they would punish anyone who defiled the body, they knew it was an important step that needed to be done.

            Now they got to work carefully taking out the organs. Four specific ones the intestine, liver, lung, stomach were carefully preserved, washed in palm wine and then salt they were then wrapped in yards of linen and stored in jars called canopic jars, these were protected by four gods which once the burial took place they would be in the chamber with the pharaoh. Then the body itself was washed inside and out with a palm wine and stuffed with spices to keep a semi-fresh smell to the body. Then the  body was laid on a slanted table were the body was covered in salt so it would soak up the fluids and any fluids not picked up by the salt drained into the basin at the lower half of the slanted table. The body was left for forty days to dry. Then the people mummifying would come back to the tent to complete their work. 

            The embalmers would carefully remove the salt and then would proceed to wrapping the body in at least forty yards of linen. Individually wrapping the fingers before wrapping them as a whole. In between the yards of linen protective amulets such as the eye of Horus were placed in the mummy along with jewelry and other adornments. Once the mummy was wrapped a coat of resin was put over the mummy to make sure it would stay preserved. Then the body would be set in its coffin. Usually there were three coffins. The outer coffin usually one with gold plating and semi precious jewels, the middle coffin usually not as important but it protected the inner coffin so it was usually made of stone. The inner coffin was made of wood and contained the mummy itself. The mummy once placed in its coffin was given a ritual by one of the embalmers who put on the jackal head dress of Anubis the go d of the dead.

            Once the mummy was done being embalmed, a process that took seventy days, it was time to take it to its burial place. Since the pyramids were found not to be such a good place to bury mummies because of the tomb robbers they moved them to the Valley of the Kings . A underground tomb was created filled with paintings and scenes from the person’s everyday life. The procession included everything the person would need in the afterlife, mourners, and family and priests accompanied it. Once reaching the mouth to the tomb a ceremony was preformed called The Opening of the mouth, allowing the mummy to eat drink and move in the afterlife. The tomb was sealed in the tomb along with scrolls containing the book of the dead. back when the pyramids were around the script was known as the pyramid text. In the text was a guide to get past of the obstacles of the afterlife. The most famous scene is the weighing of the heart, were the person was asked forty questions by forty gods the heart was weighed against Maats feather if the person was telling the truth and his heart was lighter then the feather he would be welcomed by Osiris god of the underworld and lead the rest of the way by Anubis.

            Hopefully this information has widened the minds of many who think that the Egyptians mummies are full of curses, and that their world of death was not one to fear but one to rejoice in because they didn’t see death as the end but a form of a new beginning.