Dr Joann Fletcher- Mummies Around the World- PT 1
The “
mummy” inextricably links us to the
ancient Egypt culture where dead bodies of kings and queens were prepared for the journey into the other world. The first mummy study began in the early 19th century.
Mummification was a vast industry in those times. For the mummification several steps were involved to preserve the
body. The brain was generally extracted down the nose and the entrails removed before the hollow body was dried out with salts. The dried skin was then treated with complex blends of oils and resins whose precise nature is now being studied using the latest analytical techniques. To make the body look real and live the grooming were done by the beauticians and hairdressers exactly as in the case of the brides and grooms, to give it a lifelike appearance. The finished body was then wrapped in many metres of
linen; one estate manager called Wah (c.2000 BC) had been wrapped in an amazing 375 square metres of material. Covered with protective amulet the mummy used to be transferred to the
specially and expensively crafted coffins. Elaborate ceremonies to reactivate the body with the words 'You will live again for ever. Behold, you are young again for ever' were performed, before the mummy was
buried with generous supplies of food, drink and everything the soul of the deceased would need for a comfortable afterlife. The Egyptians buried their dead in the great expanses of desert away from the cultivation on the banks of the River Nile, but whereas the wealthy were artificially mummified and placed in specially built tombs, the majority were simply buried in hollows in the sand. Their bodies were mummified by natural means, as corrosive body fluids drained away into the hot dry sand which desiccated and preserved their skin, hair and nails. Recent excavations at the site of Hierakonpolis suggest that the Egyptians were wrapping their dead in linen as early as c.3400 BC, with linen impregnated with resin or even plaster to retain the contours of the body but it wasn't until around 2600 BC the Egyptians finally succeeded to extend the durability of the mummy, by removing the internal organs where corrosion actually begins. And for the next three millennia they refined and perfected their techniques of embalming both humans and animals to become the greatest practitioners of mummification the world has ever seen. Yet for all their skill, the Egyptians were comparative latecomers to the art of body preservation, which had already been practiced in South America for thousands of years before the Egyptians ever began.
Published: January 11, 2008
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