Mummification in ancient Egypt | Facts, Process, Tools

Mummification in Ancient Egyptian civilization was a must for everyone who can afford it. In this article we will cover as much as we know about mummification in ancient Egypt. When mummification started? Why? What tools they used during mummification? Mummification process according the finding inside Anubis shrine found in Tutankhamun tomb.

Why Ancient Egyptians mummified their bodies?

We know for sure that the ancient Egyptians believed in afterlife and preserving the body or mummifying the body will help the person to be alive again. Egyptians believed the most important 3 parts of a human were Body, Ba (Soul), and Ka (identical figure of the person). When a human was born, his Ba and Ka were born with him and when he dies, his Ba will go to the sky to live with the good souls and his Ka will stay in the tomb with the body.

Meanwhile, to be a live again, the Ba should recognize the body and the Ka to reunite. So, it was very important to mummify people.

When did mummification start in ancient Egypt?

When the ancient Egyptians started to believe in after life since the Predynastic period as we found in Abydos in the tomb of Peribsen and Shunet El Zebib, they buried their bodies under sand. For our good luck, sun and sand kept some of these bodies in perfect condition but they were not created the process of mummification as we will know later.

The practice of mummifying the bodies dates back to the Old Kingdom for the royal members first then became more widespread between whoever can afford the costly process.

When ancient Egyptians started the mummification of the body?

Ancient Egyptians started the mummification of the body as soon as the person passed away. We know from the Deir El Medina in Luxor west bank that the work in the tomb stopped once the Pharaoh died and mummification started.

Our sources about Mummification in ancient Egypt

We have many sources about mummification including

• Discovery of mummified bodies including ancient Egyptian Pharaohs kings, Viziers, normal people
• Ancient Egyptian religious texts including the Book of Dead, Coffin Texts and the Pyramid Texts in Unas Pyramid
• Valley of the Kings tombs
• Papyrus rolls from ancient Egypt
• Travelers who visited Egypt and wrote about mummification like Herodotus

when they stopped the mummification?

It is very hard to tell when ancient Egyptians stopped the MUMMIFICATION but we can guess some reasons such as

1. At the end of the ancient Egyptian history, the economical situation was very bad and most of people were not able to afford the cost anymore
2. Since Alexander the Great occupied Egypt and later the Ptolemies and Roman, they brought with them their own burial practices as we can see in Kom El Shoqafa in Alexandria
3. In the Christian Period, Egyptian Christians stopped mummifying their bodies, same like Muslims they burry people underground without mummification.

Tools ancient Egyptians used during the mummification process

One of the most important sources of the tools used during the mummification was the surgical instruments in Kom Ombo temple in Aswan. Besides, the so many mummies’ archeologists find everywhere in Egypt. Also, Tutankhamun tomb was a great source of the mummification tools plus the scenes and inscriptions on the walls of the tombs of the Valley of the Kings and the tombs of Nobles.

Some of the most important tools were

• Bronze scissors
• Drills
• Tweezers
• Bronze needles
• Scalpels
• Bronze chisel
• linen bandages
• Natron
• Canopic Jars
• Amulets
• Salt
• Resins and oils
• Sawdust
• Beeswax

The 33 Mummification process according to the papyrus found in Anubis shrine in Tutankhamun tomb

Mummification process varied from royal families to high-ranking officials and normal people. Egyptian National Museum in Tahrir square has in the upper floor 3 mummies can explain easily the difference between the mummification methods.

Anyhow we will talk about the royal mummification of the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs kings took 70 days. General talks, mummification was in the palace or in the Valley temple beside the Pyramid of the King and close to the Nile River.

In that temple, there were 33 priests mummifying the Pharaoh and each one of them do one of the 33 steps of the mummification

• 1- The first step of the mummification is washing the mummy and clean the hair of the body before the mummy get dry
• 2- Taking off the eyes of the Pharaoh and replace them with stone eyes
• 3- Put linen under the tongue of the dead person
• 4- Extract the brain through the nose or a hole behind the ear
• 5- Wash the body one more time
• 6- Making incision in the shoulders to empty them
• 7- Same in the feet to get rid of water and empty them
• 8- Open 7cm from the left side of the body to take all the organs out
• 9- Mummified the organs and keep them in 4 Canopic jars
• 10- Fill the body with sawdust, linen, and salt
• 11- Close the incision and put a golden Eye of Horus on it
• 12- Put the mummy in the Natron for 3 days to dry it
• 13-15 Keep the mummy in the Oils to keep the skin flexible not breakable
• 16- prepare the hair wig for the head

Rest of Mummification process

• 17- Making a beeswax mask for the face
• 18- Putting a wooden mask on the beeswax mask
• 19- Golden mask on the wooden one
• 20- Insert the amulets including the Scarab, Eye of Horus, Key of life, and the Cartouche to protect the mummy
• 21-23 wrap the body in the linen
• 24- Golden gloves for the fingers and hands
• 25- Other ones for the feet
• 26- Cleaning the body hair
• 27-30- Prepare the stone sarcophagus
• 31- Incense to act as antibacterial
• 32- The wooden gilded sarcophagus
• 33- Taking the mummy from the Valley temple to the mortuary temple to prepare the mummy to be buried inside the Pharaonic tomb

We saw some of secrets of the ancient Egyptian mummification and the tools they used but we have to mention that the organs such as Liver, Lungs, Stomach, and intestines should be mummified and keeping them in what’s called Canopic Jars and we have plenty of them in National Museum of Civilization, Egyptian Museum, and the New Grand Museum near Pyramids.

Canopic Jars

Four boxes or containers used to preserve the 4 organs of the dead person and sometimes were buried far from the body as in Step Pyramid Southern tomb.

These jars sometimes were like one box as those of Hetepheres, the mother of Cheops builder of the Great Pyramid. Besides, the very famous shape of four separate jars with a lid representing one of Horus’s sons

1. The human-headed lid Imsety for the liver
2. Hapy, a baboon-headed for the lungs
3. Duamutef, a jackal-headed for the stomach
4. Qebehsenuef, a falcon-headed for the intestines

For more information about mummification and real canopic jars, you can book one of the Luxor day tour from Hurghada, Pyramids tour from Hurghada. Also, you can watch the funeral scenes and the mummification on the walls of the Nobles tombs such as Rekhmire, Nacht in Luxor.