Mummification

Sources

Preserving the Dead. Embalming, or mummification, was a basic technology important to ancient Egyptian culture. The mummy is the embalmed remains of the deceased. The word derives from the Arabic (or Persian) mumia, meaning pitch or bitumen, and was used to describe the embalmed remains of the Egyptians because they appeared to be covered with pitch. The practice of mummification may have arisen because of the natural desiccating property of the Egyptian sand. The earliest Egyptian burial sites, from the Predynastic Period (circa 3100-3000 b.c.e.), were simply shallow pits on the edge of the desert. The heat, combined with the desiccating property of the sand, served to dry out the tissues of the body before they could decompose, leaving a considerably lifelike appearance. With the introduction of more elaborate tombs, however, the body was no longer buried in sand and, as a result, quickly decomposed. Consequently, various attempts were made to preserve the body.

A Renewed Life. The justification for the process of mummification derives from the myth of Osiris. After

Seth had dismembered his brother Osiris, Isis traveled throughout Egypt gathering up the pieces of his body. The god of embalming, Anubis, then reassembled the pieces and rejuvenated the body of Osiris to allow him to sire a son with Isis. Each deceased Egyptian was thought to become an Osiris and, by reenacting the same mummification process, to gain renewed life. The earliest example of mummification dates to the Dynasty 4 burial of Queen Hetepheres (circa 2585-2560 b.c.e.).

Mummification Process . Throughout Egyptian history, several different methods of mummification were used, depending on what the deceased (or his or her family) could afford. An elaborate mummification could have proceeded along the following lines. First, the corpse was taken to the Per-Nefer, the House of Mummification, where it was placed on the embalming table, which was supposed to resemble the one on which Osiris had been placed. The table is frequently shown with lion’s feet. Next, the brain was removed through the nose and thrown away. The Egyptians did not recognize the significance of the brain and thought it to be of no use. The embalmer, known as the ut-priest, made a cut in the left side of the abdomen, and the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines were removed. They were wrapped separately and each was placed in its own jar. These canopic jars were buried in the tomb with the mummy, often in a special chest. At times, the heart was removed and carefully wrapped and returned to its place. At other times, it was simply left in place. Near the heart could be placed what is called a “heart scarab.” The body cavity was packed with linen, other stuffing material, and natron, a salty powder similar to baking soda that was used to dry out the body. This process took about forty days, after which the natron was removed, the body cavity was packed with linen bags of sawdust or myrrh soaked in resin, and the abdominal incision was sewn up. The body was rubbed with a mixture of cedar oil, wax, natron, and gum; it was then sprinkled with spices. The skin was smeared with molten resin, which, when hardened, kept moisture out of the body. The last step was the wrapping of the body with linen. This process could involve the use of hundreds of yards of linen. Beginning in Dynasty 30, texts from the Book of the Dead were written on some of the mummy bandages. During the wrapping process, amulets were deposited on the mummy to protect it. Throughout the whole process appropriate incantations were recited. Some of these spells have been preserved on papyri. For example, after anointing the head of the mummy with good-quality resin, the embalming priest was to recite the following:

Ho, Osiris N [N represents the name of the deceased], resin which came forth from Punt is on you in order to make your odor agreeable as the divine scent. The efflux which comes forth from Re is on you in order to make [your odor] agreeable in the broad hall of the Two Truths.

The process of making a mummy was said to take seventy days, deriving from the number of days the star Sirius was invisible. In actuality, mummification could last anywhere from thirty to more than two hundred days. Once the mummy was completed, the funeral could begin.

Sources

Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art (New York: Morrow, 1996).

Rosalie David and Eddie Tapp, eds., Evidence Embalmed: Modern Medicine and the Mummies of Ancient Egypt (Manchester, U.K. & Dover, N.H.: Manchester University Press, 1984).

Christine El Mahdy, Mummies, Myth, and Magic in Ancient Egypt (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1989).