Why Mummies?
How Mummies are Made
Here's a video showing how mummification works scientifically: How to Make a Mummy
For a fun interactive look into how mummies are made, check out this Online Mummy Maker!
When a person died, their remains would be taken to an embalmer, who would prepare the body for its soul’s journey into the afterlife. Through a long process, sometimes up to 70 days, they would remove the organs, treat the body with resins and wrap it in bandages.
The first step was to remove the organs and place them in special containers called canopic jars. Each jar held one part of the body: the stomach, intestines, lungs and liver. The Egyptians understood that these were the organs that made a body decay, because they acids that would break down the flesh. Each jar was topped with the image of an associated god or goddess. These would be placed in the tomb with the mummy.
After the organs were removed, they left the heart intact, because they believed it to be the seat of intelligence and emotions in the human body. Then they pulled the brain out of the mummy’s head through an opening in the nose, with a long metal hook.
Embalmers then washed the body with wine and packed the insides with salts and linens where the organs had been. For 40 days, the salts would dry up the body. The embalmers would then coat it with perfumes and resins to preserve the skin. They inserted mud, sawdust and lichen in any visible holes. Then the wrapping process would begin. As they wrapped the mummies, they would insert amulets between the layers, to help the soul and protect it from harm.
The finished mummy was placed in a coffin, and if the person had come from a noble background, it would be placed inside a sarcophagus as well. This was carried into the tomb and buried with great treasures.
Why Mummies? The Egyptian Afterlife
The Egyptians had a richly detailed and complex view of the afterlife. They imagined that death was just passage into a new form of living, where life would carry on the same. But the dead had to undergo many trials to get there, and they needed all the help they could get.
The Egyptians believed that the soul was divided into five parts: the Ba, the Ka, the Ren, the Sheut, and the Ib.
The Ren was the name of a person, very precious to ancient peoples. The Ba was the personality, the part of the soul which took flight when the person died and went into the underworld. The Ka was the spark of life, the part that needed food to sustain itself after death. This was the part of the soul to which offerings were made. The Sheut was the shadow, which they believed to carry a piece of the person to whom it was attached. To the Egyptians, this was a figure of death. The Ib, or the heart, was the seat of all intelligence, thought and action. This was the key to life after death. In the Weighing of the Heart, during the Judgment of the Dead, Anubis would weigh the heart of the deceased with a feather; if the heart was lighter than the feather, the soul would go on to the afterlife. If the heart outweighed the feather, and the person had done wicked things in life, their soul would be fed to a hideous monster.
Early in the history of Egypt, they believed that only the pharaoh could pass into the afterlife, and the common people would simply fade away to become ghosts in the desert. Over time, these funerary practices became popular with the nobles, who would receive tombs and the promise of mummification as gifts from their king. Some common people received mummification as well, but the most elaborate practices were reserved for those who could afford it.
Becoming a mummy was an expensive process – and for those who could afford it, mummification was the most important thing to achieve.
The Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead was a handbook to the afterlife. Also known as The Book of Going Forth by Day, or The Book of Emerging Into Light, because the Egyptians believed that passage into the afterlife was a voyage into light. These are the hieroglyphics we see on tomb walls, beside incredible pictures of gods and pharaohs and their armies. More often, they are the instructions and spells written on papyrus scrolls and placed in the tombs of pharaohs.
The Book of the Dead is a name for the spells inscribed on papyrus and placed inside tombs over the course of a thousand years. There was no one Book of the Dead, but many different versions with their own texts. Before it, there were the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts, similar spells inscribed on the walls of tombs and coffins.
The earliest texts were for the Pharaoh alone. Beginning in the 6th Dynasty, the Queen was granted her own spells to reach the afterlife. It was only in the 19th Dynasty that the Book of the Dead became accessible to nobles and officials. The Coffin Texts had been available to wealthy people for a price during the 9th Dynasty, but the writings from the Book of the Dead were secret and reserved for others.
Some of the spells revealed divine knowledge, telling the soul of Atum and his great power. Others granted powers to the soul, to move and think and touch the world. The most famous spells lead the soul through the journey of the afterlife, and give helpful hints for reaching the end.
Like a roadmap, the Book of the Dead describes the way the soul must take to reach the afterlife. One of the gods is expected to guide the soul on its journey, but the Book of the Dead reveals where the journey will take them, and what to do when they get there. It tells the deceased how to avoid being eaten by monstrous crocodiles, or attacked by jackals. Written in the texts are the names of many gods and demons they will encounter, so they may have power over them and pass through without trouble.
The journey to the afterlife was a long and troubled one, so Egyptian souls trying to reach the kingdom of Osiris needed all the help they could get.
Offerings and Ceremonies
While the soul was on its journey to the land of the dead, the living descendants they left behind had a lot of work to make the process easier. Living relatives or servants would visit the tomb to make offerings, leaving food and drink beside the coffin to sustain the soul. It was believed that the soul still needed to eat even in death. They placed food in offering dishes for the soul to eat when it returned to rest in its coffin for a while.
Offerings were not just food and drink. Tomb goods also included amazing treasures, statues, clothing
In addition to food, the soul would need servants to aid its journey. And so they would place worker figurines in their tombs, small doll-like statues called ushabtis, that would do hard work for them in the afterlife. They would row the boats that carried the deceased along the river into the afterlife. These boats were also represented in the tomb, as wooden models.
Occasionally, pharaohs would also have ceremonies and processions for their remembrance. This would renew the strength of the soul.
