Mummification in Ancient Egypt

Another characteristic element in Egyptian civilization that has stimulated the interest of scholars was, without doubt, the unusual method of preserving corpses and transforming them into mummies, a technique that was believed to be divine in origin and was traced back to Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis. The term 'mummy' derives from the Arab word mumiya or mumyai which, according to Abd el-Latif a 12th century Arab traveller, meant 'bitumen' or 'mixture of pitch and myrrh' acompound much used in working with corpses and in which, in Europe too, there was a flourish- ing trade during the middle ages. In ancient times a distinction was made between natural and artificial mummies the former being those that had been preserved intact without having undergone any particular treatment. Indeed still today it is thought that the perfect embalming techniques used by the ancient Egyptians were responsible only as a secondary factor for the spectacular state of preservation of the corpses; the principal reason would appear to be the extremely dry climate of Egypt and the total absence of bacteria in the air and the sand. In any case, the mummification of the bodies took place according to a quite precise, and probably standardized, ritual. The body of the deceased was entrusted to the hands of specialists, who began the embalming by using a hook to extract the brain through the nostrils. The skull was then filled with a mixture based on liquid bitumen, which hardened as it cooled. The eyes were removed and later replaced with enamelled orbs. Using an extremely sharp stone, an incision was made on the left side of the body and the viscera were extracted.

Only the heart was left in place. After being treated with boiling bitumen, the stomach, liver, lungs, and intestines were wrapped and then sealed in four canopic jars of clay, limestone, alabaster, other stones, or metal, depending on the social standing of the dead man; the heads depicted on the stoppers of each jar one human, one a jackal, one a hawk, and one a baboon symbolized the four attendant spirits of the dead. The jars were placed together in a single container, near the mummy. The internal cavities of the corpse were carefully washed with palm wine, dried using a powder of aromatic plants, and finally filled with ground myrrh or with perfumed wood sawdust. Thus prepared, the body was immersed in a bath of natron (natural sodium carbonate) where it remained for seventy days. At the end of this period, during which the flesh and muscles were completely dissolved in the na- tron solution, all that remained was the skin attached to the bones. The hair of the men was cut short, while that of the women was left in all its splendid length. At this point, the corpse was wrapped with narrow bindings impregnated with resin on the lower side; wrapping began with the separate fingers, then the hand, and finally the arm then the foot and leg, and so on. Work on the head was more meticulous. A cloth similar to muslin was used in im- mediate contact with the skin. The figure was cov- ered with several layers of bindings, which adhered so perfectly that if they had been removed in a piece, a plaster cast made from them would have been an exact portrait of the dead man. The entire body, lying supine, with the hands crossed on the breast or with the arms stretched out along the sides, was then again wrapped in bindings for its entire length. The corpses of the pharaohs merited a precious shroud or a golden case on which were embossed the features of the dead man. The mummies in the museums of Cairo and Alexandria and in other countries are almost perfectly preserved. The oldest known mummy is that of Sekkeram-Saef, a son of Pepi I (6th Dynasty) discovered at Saqqara in 1881 and housed in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. The skill of the One of the most fundamental moments of the funeral rites is seen on a wall of the tomb of Sennedjem in the Valley of the Artisans; the priest, wearing the mask of Anubis, touches the heart and stomach of the mummy to wake it and accompany it to the other world.

embalmers has thus transmitted the images of the great pharaohs across the centuries: we can still recognise in the shrivelled head of Tuthmosis III (who many consider to be the pharaoh of the biblical exodus of the Jews) the characteristic family nose and the thick eyebrows; and x-ray has shown that the great pharaoh, Ramesses II clearly suffered from toothache.