Most of us usually picture an Egyptian mummy wrapped in bandages and buried deep inside a pyramid. While the Egyptian ones are the most famous, mummies have been found in many places throughout the world, from Greenland to China to the Andes Mountains of South America.
A mummy is the body of a person (or an animal) that has been preserved after death.Normally when we die, bacteria and other germs eat away at the soft tissues (such as skin and muscles) leaving only the bones behind. Since bacteria need water in order to grow, mummification usually happens if the body dries out quickly after death. The body may then be so well preserved that we can even tell how the dead person may have looked in life.
"From the Middle Kingdom onwards, embalmers used salts to remove moisture from the body. The salt-like substance natron dried out and preserved more flesh than bone. Once dried, mummies were ritualistically anointed with oils and perfumes. The emptied body was then covered in natron, to speed up the process of dehydration and prevent decomposition. Natron dries the body up faster than desert sand, preserving the body better. Often finger and toe protectors were placed over the mummy's fingers and toes to prevent breakage. They were wrapped with strips of white linen that protected the body from being damaged. After that, they were wrapped in a sheet of canvas to further protect them. Many sacred charms and amulets were placed in and around the mummy and the wrappings. This was meant to protect the mummy from harm and to give good luck to the Ka of the mummy. Once preserved, they were laid to rest in a sarcophagus inside a tomb, where it was believed that the mummy would rest eternally. The mummy's mouth would later be opened in a ritual designed to symbolize breathing, giving rise to legends about revivified mummies. In some cases, a mummy has been discovered in an unmolested tomb, only to be found in a state of advanced decomposition due to the proximity of the water table. This was the case with the discovery in 1998 of the mummy of Iufaa, an Egyptian priest and administer who lived around 500 BC."
Here's How To Make a Mummy:
- Get four jars to hold the liver, lungs, intestines, and stomach. Keep the heart inside the body and discard the other internal body organs.
- Poke a rod with a hook on it through the nasal cavity to pull out the brain. Stuff the head with tree resin and sawdust.
- Soak the body in natron for 40 days. Then put the body on an inclining couch so the liquids and natron fall to the bottom into a pan. Discard.
- Rub the body with olibanum oil to make the skin supple.
- Pack the body to make it more lifelike (with spices or sawdust).
- Use wax to seal any incisions.
- Tear fine linen into strips 16 yards long and 2-8 inches wide.
- Wrap the smaller extremities (toes and fingers) first.
- Next, wrap the limbs, and finally, the torso.
- Sing appropriate chants over each body part.
- Secure linen with tree resin.
- Tuck in an amulet after every few layers.
References:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy
- http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/howto/ht_mummy.htm
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