how to make a mummy

Making mummies was a fascinating and difficult job in Egypt, and the required skills were handed down from one generation to the next. It was a job for men only.

Ancient Egypt’s first mummies were made by nature: when someone died, that person was simply buried in a pit in the desert sand, with objects to aid them in the afterlife. The bodies were thus preserved, because desert sand was hot and dry.

The ancient Egyptians made their first mummies around 3400 BC, and continued doing so for the next 4000 years, after which the practice was treated as a pagan one, owing to the spread of Christianity.

Embalmers worked in open-air tents near the Nile, so as to let the smell waft away and for good water supply.

The first fifteen days involved cleaning the body. In the Place of Purification tent, the body was washed with salt water, post which, in the House of Beauty tent the brain was removed by pushing a hook through the left nostril and thrown away. Then a slit was made in the left side of the body and the liver, lungs, intestines and stomach were taken out and kept.

The heart and kidneys were spared, though; the heart was believed to be the center of intelligence and needed in the next life.

After the insides were taken out, embalmers used a special salt called Natron, found along the edges of lakes in Northern Egypt, to dry the body. At the workshops, small linen bags were filled with natron and also rags, sawdust, dried grass and straw, and stuffed inside the body through the slit from where the insides had been taken out. This helped give the body its human shape.

Next, the body was placed on a table and covered in a thick layer of natron for 40 days to dry out completely. The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were also placed in separate pottery bowls and natron was piled on top.

After 40 days, the embalmers would remove the natron and also the stuffing inside the body. The body would now look hardly human, being shriveled and blue and thin.

The next job was to make the body appear lifelike, for which the body cavity was filled, the skin rubbed with perfumes and spices, the face painted with false eyes and make-up, and finally tree resin poured on top to stop mould growth. The dried-out organs were wrapped in linen, then put into individual jars with heads shaped like particular deities, called canopic jars.

The body slit was covered with a wax plaque called the eye of Horus, which was believed to counter the evil eye. After this, the body was wrapped in linen, a process which took 11 days. During this, amulets were placed between the layers for the afterlife.

Finally, the mummy was placed in a wooden coffin filled with grave goods for the afterlife, and carried out and buried in a procession.

how home