Mummification in Ancient Egypt

On the death of an Egyptian, those who could afford the process of embalming had their bodies handed over to the embalmers. The embalmers camps were located out in the dry dessert away from living people, and the dessert in ancient times was the domain for the Jackal. The Jackal god Anubis was responsible for the mummification of the body and a priest would re- in-act the rites of mummification assisted with other embalmers. An incision was made on the left hand side of the body and from this incision the liver, kidneys, stomach and spleen could be removed. The heart was sometimes removed and mummified and then replaced inside the body once the body itself had been mummified.

It was believed until recently that the brain was removed through the nose with a hook, but an American Egyptologist Professor Briar conducted an experiment to answer the question of how the Egyptians mummified a body. During the experiment the hook was ruled out because pulling a large organ such as a brain through a broken nasal cavity would certainly rip off the front of the deceased face, and no evidence of this damage has been found on rediscovered Egyptian mummies. Professor Briar found inside several embalmers kits which had been recovered from archaeological excavations a long double-edged copper wire with a wooden handle on the end. The procedure he used, was to break the nasal cavity entering the skull and feed-in the copper wire. Once all the copper wire had been fed into the skull the wooden handle was turned making the wire spin inside the skull and liquefying the brain inside the skull. The body was then turned on to its side and the brain dribbled out of the skull through the nose.

Once the brain had been removed the body was washed and then covered from head to toe in Natron Salt. The salt dried out the body and produced natural mummification. From death to burial the law stated that the head of the family could not inherit, if the deceased father was not buried within seventy days, so the embalmers had around forty of these days to prepare the body. Once the body was mummified the incision on the left hand side of the body had to be closed and a patch called the embalmers lips was placed over the opening. The body was ready for wrapping not for bandages, remembering the deceased is dead he/she does not require a bandage but wrapping. To cover the body from head to toe with three supporting straps required approximately 25 square meters of linen. Kings and high-ranking officials could have up to 10 layers of wrappings with jewellery and amulets of protection.

Mummification as it is known today evolved through out the ancient Egyptian chronology. The embalmers reached the zenith during the Greek and Roman period of ancient Egyptian history by making the process cheaper and accessible to the middle classes, opening up new markets within ancient Egyptian society. Even in modern Egypt today, it is illegal to cremate a body.