Why mummify

Mummification Step by Step Ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife when someone died. Mummification helped someone reach the afterlife as they believed that an afterlife could only exist if there was a form the ka soul could repossess after death. Egyptians believed that the only way to do this was if the body was recognisable. Mummification in ancient Egypt was deeply entwined with the society's religious beliefs.

The ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, their spiritual essence survived. This essence went on a journey where it encountered numerous divine and demonic beings, with its ultimate destiny to be judged by Osiris, the god of the dead. If found blameless, the deceased was allowed to live with the gods in an eternal paradise.

This was why the Egyptians placed such importance on mummification, and why the procedure was undertaken with meticulous care. Unfortunately, there is little discussion of the actual process of mummification in ancient Egyptian texts, at least in the ones that have survived.

What is discussed, Lucarelli noted, are the rituals involved in mummification rather than the nuts and bolts of the process. Instead, the particulars of the practice have come down to us largely through non-Egyptian sources, such as the 5th century Greek writer Herodotus lived — B.

In his famous work " The Histories ," he described three levels of mummification, each distinguished from the other based on the effort and elaborateness of the process. Related: Image gallery: Mummy evisceration techniques. The most elaborate method involved the removal of the brain and many of the internal organs first, especially the contents of the abdomen. The brain was typically removed using a curved metal implement that was inserted through the nostrils, while the other organs were removed by hand after an incision was made along the stomach.

The empty cavity was filled with a variety of aromatic spices, such as myrrh and cassia made from the bark of evergreen trees , before the body was stitched up. The deceased was then covered in salt for 70 days to remove all moisture.

After 70 days had passed, the body was washed and wrapped in linen. A sticky resin was applied to make sure the bandages adhered to the body. Macaulay, Related: Photos: The amazing mummies of Peru and Egypt.

The embalmers next removed all moisture from the body. This they did by covering the body with natron, a type of salt which has great drying properties, and by placing additional natron packets inside the body. When the body had dried out completely, embalmers removed the internal packets and lightly washed the natron off the body. The result was a very dried-out but recognizable human form.

To make the mummy seem even more life-like, sunken areas of the body were filled out with linen and other materials and false eyes were added. Next the wrapping began. Each mummy needed hundreds of yards of linen. The priests carefully wound the long strips of linen around the body, sometimes even wrapping each finger and toe separately before wrapping the entire hand or foot. In order to protect the dead from mishap, amulets were placed among the wrappings and prayers and magical words written on some of the linen strips.

Often the priests placed a mask of the person's face between the layers of head bandages. At several stages the form was coated with warm resin and the wrapping resumed once again. At last, the priests wrapped the final cloth or shroud in place and secured it with linen strips. The mummy was complete. The priests preparing the mummy were not the only ones busy during this time. Although the tomb preparation usually had begun long before the person's actual death, now there was a deadline, and craftsmen, workers, and artists worked quickly.

There was much to be placed in the tomb that a person would need in the Afterlife. Furniture and statuettes were readied; wall paintings of religious or daily scenes were prepared; and lists of food or prayers finished. Through a magical process, these models, pictures, and lists would become the real thing when needed in the Afterlife.

Everything was now ready for the funeral. As part of the funeral, priests performed special religious rites at the tomb's entrance. The most important part of the ceremony was called the "Opening of the Mouth.

By touching the instrument to the mouth, the dead person could now speak and eat. He was now ready for his journey to the Afterlife. The mummy was placed in his coffin, or coffins, in the burial chamber and the entrance sealed up. One was passing the final judgment. The other was a well-preserved body that the person's soul could recognize and return to after the Opening of the Mouth ceremony.

The two most important divisions of the soul were the ka and the ba. The ka was the person's double; it stayed with the deceased in the tomb. The ba , portrayed as a human-headed bird, could leave the tomb during the day but needed to return to the body at night. Without the mummy, the ba and ka could not survive.

To assure their continued existence in the afterlife, the ancient Egyptians worked hard to find the perfect method of preserving the body. Egyptian Mummification.