MUMMY

Mummies have been found in several regions of the world, including Egypt and other parts of North Africa, the Middle East, the Andes Mountains of South America, desert regions of Peru, western China, and peat bogs in Scandinavian countries.The Egyptians embalmed their dead because they believed that the deceased were reborn after death, and therefore needed bodies for existence in the afterlife.

The Egyptians devoted great effort to preserving the lifelike appearance of corpses. They preserved bodies by drying them and placing them within a protective covering. Early practitioners wrapped the dried bodies in mats. In later years, the dried bodies were placed in wooden or stone coffins. Several styles of mummification were used, depending upon the wealth of the deceased’s family, but even bodies with minimal embalming remained preserved for many years when buried directly in the hot, dry sand.

The earliest Egyptian mummies, discovered at the southern city of Hierakonpolis, date from about the year 3400 BC. The embalmers had simply padded these bodies with linen and covered them with a pitch-like substance that sealed the body against moisture. In later burials, embalmers fully removed the body’s internal organs (stomach, lungs, liver, and intestines) in a process called evisceration. They placed the organs in special containers called canopic jars.