Unwrapping the Secrets of Mummification: Ancient Egypt’s Fascinating Preservation Process

Have you ever wondered about mummification? We've all seen mummies in movies and books, even from a young age. Hey, do any other 90s kids remember the Disney movie that used to air around Halloween, Under Wraps? That was one of my favorites. These movies showed us how a mummy might appear—without the walking and talking, of course. Although entertaining, they didn't touch on the actual process of how one would become a mummy. The process was called mummification, and as far back as 3500 BC in ancient Egypt, it was the chosen method of preserving a dead body.

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During the time of the Egyptians, much attention was focused on death and the belief in the afterlife. Mummification began as an attempt to preserve the body of the deceased, keeping it as life-like as possible. This was because they believed the deceased would need their body to be identified during their passage to the afterlife and the judgment of Osiris. Along with human bodies, the ancient Egyptians also mummified animals such as rats, lizards, and mice. The ancient Egyptians must have been pet lovers, because over one million mummified animals have been found in Egypt—most of them being cats. As a fellow cat lover, I totally get it.

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The process of mummification aimed to dry out the body and remove all moisture, preventing decay. A long incision was made down the left side of the body to remove the internal organs. The brain was removed using a hook inserted into a hole near the nose and pulled out. All organs were removed, except for one very important one—the heart. The heart was believed to be needed to judge the deceased in the afterlife, so it stayed inside the body. The other internal organs were dried and stored in canopic jars. Priests, who were skilled in performing these procedures, were known as “rippers up” or “slicers.” I wonder if they were popular among their peers at the time.

After the organs were removed, the inside of the body was washed out with spices and wine and typically filled with onions. There’s a common myth that onions were placed in the eye cavities to give the appearance of false eyes, but in reality, false eyes were made from stone or glass. While the Egyptians did have a special fondness for onions (which you can look up for a fun history lesson), they weren’t used in the eye cavities. After this, the body was covered in salt for 70 days to remove all moisture, then stuffed with sand and linen to restore its human shape. Once this was completed, the body was wrapped in linen, and sticky resin was used to ensure the bandages stayed in place.

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You might be thinking, this sounds like a very time-consuming and possibly expensive process—and it was. Due to the high cost, mummification was initially reserved for pharaohs and the wealthy. Over time, however, it became more accessible to the poor. Once the body had been prepared and wrapped, it was placed in a sarcophagus, which acted as a coffin or a container for the coffin. Sarcophagi were often made of stone and could be buried or displayed above ground. They were elaborately carved and decorated, often in the shape of ancient mythical animals. If you were a pharaoh, your sarcophagus was placed in a special chamber or tomb filled with treasures. Pharaohs would begin working on their tombs early in life, preparing for their death—a process that could take up to 20 years. We could probably learn a thing or two from the pharaohs about accepting death as an inevitable part of life and getting things in order before it comes.

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Something to Ponder...

If you decide to research this subject yourself, you’ll find many other fascinating facts about Egyptian mummification, burials, and funerals. I had to choose the most pertinent information for this blog post to keep it from turning into a book, but I don’t want you to feel left out, so here are some additional tidbits:

• The chief embalmers, known as “slicers,” were often also doctors and wore masks of the god Anubis during the mummification process.

• Some of the mummified cats I mentioned earlier weren’t beloved pets but were actually religious offerings. So, maybe they weren't crazy pet lovers, but they certainly treated their mummified animals with great care, even placing them in coffins and tombs.

• Lastly, mummified bodies were sometimes boiled, and the oils extracted were used as medicine for ailments like bruises, stomach aches, and more.

  Got a stomachache? Here, take a swig of this mummy oil...

  
  
  
  

  P.S. Don’t forget about the onions…