Egyptian Mummy Research Paper

The Egyptians practiced the art of mummifying their dead for 3,000 years or more in the belief that the soul would be reunited with the body in the afterlife, so the body had to be kept intact. A mummy is a dead body in which some of the soft tissue has been preserved along with the bones. Usually this means it was specially embalmed or preserved for burial, but sometimes natural conditions alone freeze, dry out, or otherwise prevent the body from decaying by inhibiting the growth of microbes. The most carefully prepared Egyptian mummies date from about 1000 B.C., but the earliest ones discovered are much older. Sacred animals, such as cats and crocodiles, were also mummified. The most elaborate Egyptian process, used for royalty and rich people, took about 70 days. There were two parts: embalming and wrapping. Embalming is a procedure of using preservatives to keep a dead body intact for as long as possible. Wrapping is when they wrapped the mummy in strips of linen. First, most of the internal organs were removed. The brain was usually taken out through the nostrils with a hook and then thrown away. The heart, considered the most important organ, was usually left in place. Most of the …show more content…
The outer case was often covered with paintings and hieroglyphics telling of the life of the deceased. A molded mask of the dead or a portrait on linen or wood sometimes decorated the head end of the case. This double case was placed in a coffin and deposited in a sarcophagus. They used bitumen, a material like asphalt, to seal up their mummies. The bodies of less wealthy people were merely dried with salt and wrapped with coarse cloths. The poorest people could not afford mummification. In conclusion, I learned that mummification is actually a pretty complicated process. I used to think that they just wrapped the dead body up in cloth, but there’s a lot more to it than