Food and furniture, clothes and jewelry. They would all be used and enjoyed in the afterlife. But the most important thing a person needed after death was his or her own body.
The belief was that the person’s spirit returned again and again to its body. So the Egyptians learned how to preserve a dead body. They wanted to keep it from decaying. They wanted it to last for as long as possible.
What they did was dry out the dead body. They turned it into a mummy. Over the centuries the ancient Egyptians became better and better at making mummies.
Right after he died, Tut’s body was ferried by boat across the Nile River. There, priests were waiting. Their job was to make his body into a mummy.
From start to finish, it took about seventy days. First, the pharaoh’s body had to be cut open. This was so the organs inside could be removed. The Egyptians believed that the heart was the seat of thought and wisdom. Tut’s spirit would need his heart in the afterlife. So it stayed in his body.
But the priests removed his lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines. Each was put in a special jar, protected by a different god. Later on, these jars were placed inside Tut’s tomb, along with his mummy.
The Egyptians didn’t think a person’s brain did much of anything. So, with a thin hook that went in through the nose, they scraped out Tut’s brain . . . then threw it away!
Tut’s body is drying in natron.
After this, Tut’s hollow body was ready to be dried out. The priests used a salt called natron. For about forty days, Tut’s body lay packed in natron. Slowly the salt dried out all the water from the body. The skin became tough and dry like leather.
To keep its shape, the body was stuffed with scented rags. Then it was ready to be wrapped in yards and yards of fine white cloth. The priests said prayers as they wrapped up the pharaoh’s mummy. The wrapping took fifteen days. The priests placed little good-luck charms in between the layers of cloth.
Tut’s body is being wrapped.
Many of the charms were made of gold and pretty colored stones in different shapes. Some were heart-shaped. Some, called scarabs, looked like beetles. Still others looked like tiny eyes. They were meant to keep evil spirits away from Tut.
Once his body was all wrapped up, the cloth layers were coated with something like glue. When it dried, the wrapping became hard, like a shell around the mummy. Now Tut’s mummy was ready for his funeral.
ANIMAL MUMMIES
BESIDES PEOPLE, THE EGYPTIANS MADE MUMMIES OF MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANIMALS: DOGS, CATS, BIRDS, FISH, BABOONS-EVEN BULLS AND HIPPOPOTAMUSES! THEY DID THIS FOR MANY REASONS. SOMETIMES A MUMMY BIRD OR JOINT OF A COW WAS LEFT IN A TOMB AS FOOD FOR THE DEAD PERSON IN THE AFTERLIFE. SOMETIMES PEOPLE DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE THEIR PETS BEHIND AFTER THEY DIED. SO THEY MADE MUMMIES OF THEIR CATS, DOGS, AND EVEN GAZELLES.
THE EGYPTIANS BELIEVED THAT CERTAIN GODS AND GODDESSES COULD APPEAR AS ANIMALS. FOR INSTANCE, THE GODDESS BASTET SOMETIMES APPEARED AS A CAT. SO CATS WERE TURNED INTO MUMMIES TO HONOR HER. ONE TEMPLE TO BASTET HAD THOUSANDS OF CAT MUMMIES IN IT. |