Ancient Egyptian Mummification
Mummification has been a major part of culture in Egypt since about 2600 BC when Egyptians started to practise mummification as ritual. Although it became a common procedure for Egyptians later on, it was expensive and long so it started with only royalty getting mummified in the beginning.
Religion was a big part of mummification. A priest would be involved in the process and a lot of prayers and ceremonies were put in place in order for the person to have a safe and happy afterlife. In common Egyptian religion, it was said that the body is the house of the soul, and to live on in the afterlife your body would have to ‘live’ on too.
Mummification was evidently a great way of preserving the body since there are still bodies preserved from thousands of years ago you can see today such as Tutankhamun, probably one of the most famous pharaohs because of his very well preserved body and sarcophagus (those gold plated Egyptian coffin sort of things).
The mummification process was very effective and well thought out, and also included religion and prayer into it so it was a way of keeping the body and making sure the afterlife went smoothly. The chief embalmer would be a priest wearing an Anubis mask, as Anubis was the god of the dead. Here is a step-by-step of the mummification process.
Push a hook-like rod up the nose breaking through the brain case to get to the brain.
A tool was used to blend up the brain, then either flush it out with water or wine or wait for it to drain out of the nose.
To pull out the internal organs, make a slit in the left side of the abdomen and pull out the organs. An alternative method would be to go through the vagina, anus or both and pull them out through there, but this method wasn’t used as much.
Let the organs dry and then place lungs, intestines, stomach and liver inside canopic jars (little jars that were carved to look like gods).
When working with someone of wealth, royalty or high up in the social structure, place the heart back inside the body so the person will be able to enjoy the afterlife as they did when they were alive.
Rinse the inside and outside of the body with good smelling wine and water from the Nile.
Cover the body with salt (natron) for 70 days to extract the moisture from the body to preserve it for longer.
40 days after the salt has been taken off the body, stuff the body with linen or sand to give it a more human shape and weight.
70 days after stuffing the body, wrap it from head to toe in bandages.
Place the body into a sarcophagus (egyptian coffin).