The Mummification Process

      A desire to preserve the body after death was central to Egyptian religion and beliefs about the afterlife. Egyptians expected that the afterlife would be spend enjoying the best that this life had to offer: fishing, hunting, feasting, sailing, and so on. There were two basic requirements for the afterlife: a body preserved in its lifelike form, and a supply of goods to last through eternity. Egyptians also believed that in death, their spiritual double, the ka, would reside near their body, and have the same needs -- food, clothing, perfume, furniture -- as their living body had.
      Mummification in Egypt probably began about 2400 BCE, and continued into the Greco-Roman period. Some of our best information came from the Greek historian Herodotus, who documented the process in 450 BCE. Preserving bodies became a fully developed craft with its own guild of practitioners. It was also a religious rite presided over by a priest who uttered chants and prayers while wearing a jackal mast to represent Anubis, the god of embalming.

How to Make a Mummy

1. The brain, considered useless, was removed through the nostrils with an iron hook and discarded. What could not be reached was dissolved by chemicals. 

2. The presiding priest turned the body onto its right side, made an incision on the left, and removed all the major organs except the heart. Because the heart was considered the seat of intelligence and the ka's bodily home, it was left in place. 

3. The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were cleaned, then dried with a substance called natron. The organs were then placed in four separate canopic jars, usually made of limestone, calcite, or clay. The lid of each jar was shaped to look like one of Horus' four sons. (Natron, obtained from dried-up riverbeds, is a compound of four salts: sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. It draws water out and creates a hostile environment for bacteria.)

4. The body was washed with wine and the cavity stuffed with different materials: linen, Nile mud, sawdust, or lichen, plus aromatic substances such as myrrh. It was covered with more natron and dried for up to 70 days.

5. Once dried, the body was washed in oils and spices; the mouth and nose were cleaned and stuffed with linen, and the eyelids were stuffed with small onions or linen pads. The body incision was closed and covered with a plate, sometimes gold. 

6. Finally, the body was wrapped in several layers of linen that had been coated with resins and oils. Amulets and jewelry were hidden amongst the layers. Towards the time of the Middle Kingdom, it was customary to place a mask over the face. usually the masks were made of cartonnage (papyrus or linen coated with plaster), or sometimes wood. Silver and gold were for royalty. 

Writing: ECHOES from the past, published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.