Explaining the Mummification Process

MummificationMummification was a way of preservepreserving a body so that it did notdidn’t   end up being a meal for worms and maggots.maggots. This was importantimportant to early civilisationscivilisations such as the AncientAncient EgyptiansEgyptians because they believedbelieved that in orderorder to have a life after death, your body would need to be recogniserecognisable still so that you could use it again. This processprocess was very expensiveexpensive so only the rich and powerfulpowerful people could affordafford it.

The process of mummification followedfollowed six steps: purification,purification, removeremoving the internalinternal organs,organs, salting,salting, oiling,oiling, stuffingstuffing and wrapping.wrapping. This was done by a special priest who wore the mask of the god Anubis,Anubis, the Ancient Egyptian god of the dead.

First the body was takentaken to a place of purification for a bath in palm wine and then a rinse in water from the Nile.

When it was clean and pure, the internalinternal organs,organs, the liver,liver, lungs, stomach,stomach, intestinesintestines and heart, were removedremoved and packedpacked in salt to dry them out. The brain was pulledpulled through the nose with a little spoon and then fed to cats, which had a specialspecial place in Ancient Egyptian life.

Salt was pouredpoured intointo the empty spaces where the organs had been takentaken out and then the whole body was coveredcovered in more salt. After fortyforty days the salt could be washedwashed off, the cavitycavity washed with wine and spices and oil rubbedrubbed all over the body. At this stage, the heart could be put back into the body alongalong with the other organs or they could be put into special vesselsvessels called canopiccanopic jars.

Next came the stuffingstuffing step. Sawdust,Sawdust, leaf,leaves sand or balled-up linenlinen was put insideinside the body to plump it up and give it a more humanhuman shape.

Now for the wrappingwrapping stage. The body was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, startingstarting with the head and neck first, addingadding luckylucky charms to give the mummy protectionprotection on its journey.journey. The high priest, still wearing his Anubis mask, would read spells and incantationsincantations over the body and a scroll from the Book of the Dead would be placed in the mummy’s hands.

Now the body was ready to be put inside its sarcophagussarcophagus (a type of box like a coffin), sometimessometimes even inside a second, third, fourth, or even fifth coffin! Then the mummy could be buryburied inside the special buryburial chamber, deep in the earth, along with their most prizedprized possessions.

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