Ancient Egyptian Mummification Hannah Stevenson, Kirsten Whitley, Connelly Weems, Zac Freeman

Mummification Facts Reserved for the rich and powerful Process was long and expensive Scribe oversaw the cutting Cutter actually did the cutting Embalmer helped preserve the body

Mummification Facts Procedure considered unclean so cutters could only be so high in the classes Process took 70 days: 15 days spent on cleansing and purification, 40 days spent on drying, 15 days spent wrapping, bandaging and painting 7 was used much because it was considered to be a magical number

Purpose of Mummification Ancient Egyptians believed that two were three aspects to a person’s soul, the Ka and the Ba. The Ka was the less physical part of the soul. They believed that it could not leave the tomb and if diturbed would roam the earth restlessly. They believed that the Ba was the personality of the person and would go out in the day and come back at night. They would often make statues of the person to make the Ka and the Ba’s “life” much easier.

Mummification Process 1)Body stripped and put on board 2)Brain extracted through nose 3)Empty brain cavity filled with resin 4)Chest cut open and main organs removed with the exception of the heart 5)Organs put in Canopic jars with a naturally occurring drying agent 6)Body cavity washed and packed with natron, another drying agent 7)Body dries for o]up to forty days 8)When dried, body sewn back together and sealed with wax or metal

Mummification Process (cont.) 9) Body sometimes filled with linen, saw dust, salt or ash 10) Eye sockets filled with linen or fake eyeballs, depending on the time period 11) Body then cleaned and wrapped in thick layer of linen 12) Linen coated in liquid resin 13) More bandages wrapped around the resin and then a shroud is added to cover it 14) A burial mask is then added. This was not simply to protect the head, it was also said to have acted as a second head in the afterlife if the actual one was somehow missing 15) Body then taken to funeral at tomb 16) After the funeral, body is placed in the stone sarcophagus

However, mummification is not always brought on specifically by humans. Nature has also mummified its share of people. In the desert many are found mummified because the dry, arid climate is a perfect condition for natural mummification. Another example, is in a permanently frozen environment such as Antarctica where the mummies are simply frozen. Many of these mummies are actually frozen in the state in which they died. For example, Pompeii is an example of an entire city that had been mummified by volcanic ash. Everything was found exactly as it was hundreds and hundreds years ago when it was actually buried in a thick sheet of ash.