In order to protect the dead from mishap, amulets were placed among the wrappings and prayers and magical words written on some of the linen strips. Often the priests placed a mask of the person's face between the layers of head bandages.
At several stages the form was coated with warm resin and the wrapping resumed once again. At last, the priests wrapped the final cloth or shroud in place and secured it with linen strips.
The mummy was complete. The priests preparing the mummy were not the only ones busy during this time. Although the tomb preparation usually had begun long before the person's actual death, now there was a deadline, and craftsmen, workers, and artists worked quickly. There was much to be placed in the tomb that a person would need in the Afterlife.
Furniture and statuettes were readied; wall paintings of religious or daily scenes were prepared; and lists of food or prayers finished. Through a magical process, these models, pictures, and lists would become the real thing when needed in the Afterlife.
Everything was now ready for the funeral. As part of the funeral, priests performed special religious rites at the tomb's entrance. The most important part of the ceremony was called the "Opening of the Mouth.
By touching the instrument to the mouth, the dead person could now speak and eat. He was now ready for his journey to the Afterlife. The mummy was placed in his coffin, or coffins, in the burial chamber and the entrance sealed up. Such elaborate burial practices might suggest that the Egyptians were preoccupied with thoughts of death. On the contrary, they began early to make plans for their death because of their great love of life.
They could think of no life better than the present, and they wanted to be sure it would continue after death. But why preserve the body? The Egyptians believed that the mummified body was the home for this soul or spirit. If the body was destroyed, the spirit might be lost. The idea of "spirit" was complex involving really three spirits: the ka, ba, and akh.
The ka, a "double" of the person, would remain in the tomb and needed the offerings and objects there. The ba, or "soul", was free to fly out of the tomb and return to it. And it was the akh, perhaps translated as "spirit", which had to travel through the Underworld to the Final Judgment and entrance to the Afterlife. To the Egyptian, all three were essential. After death, the pharaohs of Egypt usually were mummified and buried in elaborate tombs.
Members of the nobility and officials also often received the same treatment, and occasionally, common people. However, the process was an expensive one, beyond the means of many. For religious reasons, some animals were also mummified. The sacred bulls from the early dynasties had their own cemetery at Sakkara.
The skin was stuffed with reeds, dried plants or other vegetal matter. Sticks were inserted into the arms and legs. Clay masks were placed on the corpses' faces and wigs were often attached.
The finished mummy was then painted. During the early phases of Chinchorro society about 7, — 4, years ago , mummies were painted with black manganese. From B. Not just the elite but all segments of Chinchorro society were mummified, including infants, children, adults and even fetuses. It was in ancient Egypt, however, that mummification reached its greatest elaboration.
The first Egyptian mummies appear in the archaeological record at approximately B. By the time of the Old Kingdom, or Age of the Pyramids ca. It became a mainstay during subsequent periods, reaching particular heights of sophistication during the New Kingdom ca.
Unlike in Chinchorro society, mummification in ancient Egypt was typically reserved for the elite of society such as royalty, noble families, government officials and the wealthy. Common people were rarely mummified because the practice was expensive. Related: 2 mummies unearthed in ancient Egyptian cemetery where King Tut and other royalty were buried. Mummification in ancient Egypt was deeply entwined with the society's religious beliefs.
The ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, their spiritual essence survived. This essence went on a journey where it encountered numerous divine and demonic beings, with its ultimate destiny to be judged by Osiris, the god of the dead. If found blameless, the deceased was allowed to live with the gods in an eternal paradise. This was why the Egyptians placed such importance on mummification, and why the procedure was undertaken with meticulous care. Unfortunately, there is little discussion of the actual process of mummification in ancient Egyptian texts, at least in the ones that have survived.
What is discussed, Lucarelli noted, are the rituals involved in mummification rather than the nuts and bolts of the process. Instead, the particulars of the practice have come down to us largely through non-Egyptian sources, such as the 5th century Greek writer Herodotus lived — B. In his famous work " The Histories ," he described three levels of mummification, each distinguished from the other based on the effort and elaborateness of the process. Related: Image gallery: Mummy evisceration techniques.
Then it is filled with pure crushed myrrh, cassia, and all other aromatic substances, except frankincense. When this period. N atron, a disinfectant and desiccating agent, was the main ingredient used in the mummification process. A compound of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate salt and baking soda , natron essentially dried out the corpse. Obtained from dried-up river beds, it was packed around and inside the body in linen bags, and left for 35 to 40 days to draw moisture out of the tissues.
By removing the organs and packing the internal cavity with dry natron, the body tissues were preserved. The body was filled with Nile mud, sawdust, lichen and cloth scraps to make it more flexible. Small cooking onions or linen pads were sometimes used to replace the eyes. Beginning in the third dynasty, the internal organs lungs, stomach, liver and intestines were removed, washed with palm wine and spices, and stored in four separate canopic jars made of limestone, calcite or clay.
Prior to this, the abdominal contents were removed, wrapped and buried in the floor of the tomb. However, the heart was left in the body because it was considered the centre of intelligence. T he corpse was then washed , wrapped in linen as many as 35 layers and soaked in resins and oils. This gave the skin a blackened appearance resembling pitch. The term "mummification" comes from the Arabic word mummiya , which mean bitumen, a pitch substance that was first used in the preservation process during the Late Period.
The family of the deceased supplied the burial linen, which was made from old bed sheets or used clothing. I n the Middle Kingdom , it became standard practice to place a mask over the face of the deceased. The majority of these were made of cartonnage papyrus or linen coated with gesso, a type of plaster , but wood and, in the case of royal mummies , silver and gold, were also used.
The most famous mask is Tutankhamun's. T he ancient embalmers used very few tools, and once their work was completed, they sometimes left them in or near the tomb.
The basic tool kit included a knife to make the abdominal incision, hooked bronze rods to extract brain matter, a wooden adze-like tool to remove internal organs, and a funnel to pour resins into the cranial cavity through the nose.
T he Egyptians mummified animals as well as humans -- everything from bulls and hawks to ichneumons and snakes.
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