Egyptian Mummification Process.
Introduction
Generally, the mummification process involved the preservation of the dead body. Although there exist some mummies in the world, ancient Egyptians are the earliest creators of an elaborate process of ensuring that the body is well preserved. Earlier in the history of Egyptians, the dead would be buried in the desert, creating natural mummification. The main motive behind mummification was ensuring that all the moisture in the body is removed, to prevent bacteria from decaying it. The body buried in the desert would get dehydrated between the sand and hot air, creating a mummy. The initial process of mummification began around the 3000BCE (Davey, 2017). When the Egyptian Pharaohs died, they were mummified then buried in intricate tombs. Nobles people and officials in the government were also treated similarly, and sometimes, ordinary people too. However, the mummification process was costly, unaffordable to many ordinary Egyptians. Some animals were even mummified for religious reasons. There was a cemetery for the sanctified bulls from the first dynasties at Sakkara. Other animals that possessed religious significance like crocodiles, birds, baboons, and cats were also mummified.
Philosophy
In ancient times, Egyptians believe in eternal life and resurrection of the dead body. The roots of this belief were in their day to day observations. Every day, the sunset on the western horizon in the evening and in the morning, it was reborn on the eastern horizon. Similarly, new life emerged from grains that were planted on the earth, and the moon waned and waxed. As long as there was the maintenance of order, all things were highly dependable, and eternal life could be attained, given that particular conditions were maintained (Onderka et al., 2016). For instance, mummification would be essential in preserving the dead body, and the adequately furnished tomb was required for life to continue in the afterworld.
The procedure in which the body was preserved, mummification, is detailed in the primordial pyramid texts. When the god of the dead died, Osiris, chaos began in the universe, and the gods’ tears changed into materials that were eventually used to mummify the body of Osiris. The materials were incense, honey, and resins. Before the mummification process was invented, the corpse was mounted in a fetal sleeping position inside a pit, together with the deceased personal items like jewelry and clay pots (Bewes et al., 2016). Sand soil was then used to cover the pit. The sand absorbed all the moisture from the corpse, hence preserving it. The pits used for burying the dead were later ruled with mud bricks and roofed, then the corpse was either covered with animal skins or interred in wooden coffins, basket ware, or pottery. These enhancements ensured that the body could never decay since it did not come into contact with heat or hot sand. This issue was also solved by removing the internal organs of the body, which was then mummified using drying agents.
In Egypt, this practice started in 2400 B.C. Egyptians continued practicing it up to the period of Graeco-Roman (David, 2016). In the period of the Old Kingdom, people believed that the pharaohs could only attain immortality. Nevertheless, there was a shift in attitudes during the 2000 BC. Every person was capable of living in the life after death, as long as their corpse was mummified and essential preservation elements placed in their tombs. However, due to the cost of mummification, only the rich people took advantage of this process. Mummification was not considered essential for resurrection in life beyond the world. However, people regarded it as a highly desirable way of achieving life after death. The Book of the Dead had prayers written in it that helped the deceased to make a successful shift to the next world. During the Third Intermediate Period, mummification was perfected, and Herodotus, a Greek Historian, documented the process of mummification around 450 B.C.
Intent
With the Egyptians being very religious, they believed in life after death, just like many other cultures did. To the Egyptians, afterlife meant a difficult journey before judgment by the god Osiris in the Hall of Two Truths, and getting their hearts assessed against Maat, or the fear of truth (Riggs, 2017). For this journey to be successful, its most significant requirement was to ensure that the physical body was preserved to make way for the soul to move back and forth. According to the ancient Egyptians, there were several components of human beings; soul, shadow, name, the physical body, heart, life force, and effectiveness. For the individual to be effectively resurrected, the components had to be reconstructed during the rite of the funeral. Destroying any of these elements, perhaps through cremation, was seen as dooming the individual to eternal nonexistence. For this reason, Egyptians were very afraid of drowning, as it would prevent the recovering of the body.
The people of Egypt usually had a way of working around this in situations where something happened to their corpse. This was a prudent move because tomb robbers could not hesitate hacking bodies to recover amulets, expensive line wrappings, or jewelry. Carved images and reserve head of the body that the soul could inhabit was a popular method during the era of the Old Kingdom. Another fail-safe was carving or painting the images of the dead person on his/her tomb.
Accomplishment
According to McKnight, Atherton-Woolham & Adams (2015), the average period of the process of mummification was seventy days. Some special priests acted as the embalmers, wrapping and treating the corpse. These priests knew the correct prayers and rituals that were conducted at different stages. They also required detailed knowledge of the anatomy of the human body. The initial phase in the mummification involved the removal of the internal body parts that would quickly decay. In removing the brain, special hooked instruments were carefully inserted through the nostrils to pull out some brain tissues. This operation was very delicate, as one could easily damage the face. After that, the embalmers could remove the parts of the chest and abdomen by cutting the abdomen’s left side. The only organ that was left is the heart, as it was believed to the central part of the intelligence and being of the person. After the other organs had been removed, their preservation was done separately. The stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver were placed in unique jars or boxes known as canopic jars. These separate preserved organs were buried together with the mummy. For the later mummies, these organs, after been treated, were wrapped and placed inside the body. Regardless, the canopic jars which were never used were considered part of the ritual.
The second step of the mummification process was the removal of water from the corpse. This moisture was removed by covering the corpse with natron, a kind of salt with substantial drying properties (Bard, 2015). Additional packets of natron were also placed inside the body. After drying the body, the packets of natron were removes and washed off from the body. The outcome here was a completely dried out, however recognizable human body. The mummy was made more life a life form by filling out the sunken areas with linen and other materials and adding false eyes to the body.
The third step was wrapping the mummy. Wrapping a single mummy took so many yards of linen. The wrapping was done by the special priests who would carefully wind the long linen strips around the corpse. Sometimes, they could wrap each toe and finger separately then cover the whole foot or hand. The dead were protected from a mishap by placing an amulet in the wrappings and writing magical words and prayers on some strips of the linen. At times, the priests would put a mask of the face of the dead person between the head bandage layers. In some stages, the warm resin was used to cover the form, and the wrapping restarted. Lastly, the priests would wrap the final shroud or cloth in place, and safeguard it using linen strips. After this step, the mummy was not complete.
During this process, not only the priests would be busy. Artists, workers, and craftsmen were busy winding up with the preparations of the tomb. There were so many things that would be placed in the grave for the dead afterlife. Statuette and furniture were made ready, daily or religious scenes were painted on the tomb, and lists of prayers and foods were prepared. In a magical process, the lists, models, and pictures could later be the actual things essential during the afterlife.
During the burial ritual, special religious rights were performed by priests at the entrance of the tombs. ‘Opening the Mouth’ was the most crucial part of the funeral ceremony (Davey, 2017). In this part, a priest used a unique instrument to open various body parts to the senses that the person enjoyed in life, and those that he/she will need in the life after death. By touching the mouth of the dead body using this particular instrument, it was now believed that the dead could eat and speak. The mummy was after that kept in the coffin, mounted in the burial chamber, and sealing done on the entrance.
This elaborate practice of burial suggests that ancient Egyptians believed in death. In contrast, their great love for life made them plan earlier for death. They believed that there was no better life than the present, that is why they would ensure that life continues even after death. They also believed that the mummy was the home for the spirit and soul. Destruction of the body would lose the spirit.
Conclusion
Modern scientists, the mummies themselves, and the ancient writers help people today in understanding the process of mummification. Much of what people know regarding this process is based on the texts of early historians. This knowledge is being added by present-day archeologists as well as other specialists. The technological development is making it possible for doctors to x-ray mummies, or carry-out autopsies on the unwrapped corpses, to identify the illness of the Egyptians and their forms of medical treatments. Also, studying the bones of these mummies generates an idea of the average life span of the dead and kinship ties too. Being gone for hundreds and hundreds of years, the mummies still speak to the people.
References
Bard, K. A. (2015). An introduction to the archaeology of ancient Egypt. John Wiley & Sons.
Bewes, J. M., Morphett, A., Pate, F. D., Henneberg, M., Low, A. J., Kruse, L., … & Adams, E. (2016). Imaging ancient and mummified specimens: Dual-energy CT with effective atomic number imaging of two ancient Egyptian cat mummies. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 8, 173-177.
Davey, J. (2017). Ancient Egypt: Mummification and burial sites as historical resources. Agora, 52(2), 20.
David, R. (2016). Egyptian medicine and disabilities: from pharaonic to Greco-Roman Egypt. In Disability in Antiquity (pp. 91-105). Routledge.
McKnight, L. M., Atherton-Woolham, S. D., & Adams, J. E. (2015). Imaging of ancient Egyptian animal mummies. RadioGraphics, 35(7), 2108-2120.
Onderka, P., Jungová, G., Bučil, J., Oktábcová, L., Pečený, J., Cvrček, J., … & Tomsová, J. (2016). Atlas of Egyptian Mummies in the Czech Collections: Complete Adult Human Mummies. I. National Museum.
Riggs, C. (2017). The body in the box: archiving the Egyptian mummy. Archival Science, 17(2), 125-150.