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Mummified in Egypt - Egyptian Mummies |
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| Sinuhe, the Egyptian a well-known literary character, asks the old Ramose, who lived as embalmer in the house of death, the Amun-temple in Theban, in the famous novel by Waltari : "Why shall the human body be preserved, that it can withstand the death, when it is cold and numb?'' So it was and so it will be. Whom, that I could explain, what happened since primeval times?" In Egypt arose the most distinguished and colossal cult of the dead, human has ever celebrated on earth. The housed and palaces of the living are gone, the tombs of the king, the noble, the workers of the king's tomb stayed to bear witness, how man lived in ancient Egypt and how they were buried. The ancient Egyptian believed that each man has many souls. Only the body died, but the souls, Ka, Ba and Ankh lives on as spirit creatures. Ka was a double of the death and had to take nourishment like the human body. For Ba, the house of the dead had to be on the west, so Ba could travel to the netherworld with the declining sun and come back with the rising sun into the human body. The Ankh guarded the death and followed as avenging ghost anyone who disturbed the silence of the tomb. At the mummy-master, the real mummification of the deceased took place. Seventy days priests and embalmer were busy with the embattlement of the dead body. The dead was placed on a 30 cm high table with a hole, thought that, the body liquids could drain off. The body was opened and all inwards were removed, inwards: liver, lungs, spleen, kidney, stomach and entrails. Only the heart as a center of the life stayed on its place. The brain was extracted through the nostril by means of bronze needles and hooks. The innards were separately mummified and were put into four jars (canonic jars), it was also placed in the grave chamber. The empty abdomen of the dead was washed with the palm wine and filled with fragrance like myrrh and cassia. Water has to be extracted from the body that is why it was covered with matron and then dried on the sun or near the fire. Now the mummy master pad the body, to preserve the body and make it as much look alike as possible. In resin dipped lined pads, saw dust and cloth were used. After the dehydration process the skin of the dead body was shriveled up and wrinkled. Ten times the embalmer swabbed the body with coniferous rinse and precious oils, before the bandaging began. First were the hands and the feet swathed with thin linen strips and then the whole body until it looked like a tied up bundle. Between the bandages small amulets were put and brushed with liquid resin. A priest who is disguised as Anubis, the god with the jackal head, did the supervision over this holy ceremony. Before the internment, the craftsman of the dead city manufactured the death mask, portrayal of the face of the dead person. The death mask did not only cover the face of the dead person but also the upper part of the breast and the back. For pharaohs and important persons the masks were made of pure gold and inlaid with precious stones. The newly discovered mummies in the Oasis of Bahria show that the mummification continued even during the roman period in Egypt and the dead bodies were conserved with precision and beauty. Like any other culture, the Egyptians worshipped the holy animals , whose souls lived on in the netherworld. The holy animals were also adored in their specially built temples and graves like Memphis for the Apes bulls or Kom Ombo crocodile or Kebasch for the holy cat. The holy animals : bull, crocodile, cats, falcons, scarabs, ibises and so on were also mummified. |
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