ANCIENT EGYPT

MUMMIFICATION
 Why the Egyptian Mummified the Body ?
• The Egyptian believed in life would continue after
death and they would still need their physical bodies.
• Life after death only possible if the body was preserved
in a lifelike form that the spirits knows as the
Ba(personality) and the Ka(life force) could recognize
the body
• The body could then act as a bridge between the
spirits of the deceased and the offerings provided by
the living.

The Egyptians believed that the mummified body housed

one's soul or spirit. If the body was destroyed, the spirit
could be lost and not make its entrance into the afterlife.
This is also why tomb preparation was a crucial ritual in
Egyptian society.
 How Mummies were made ?
This is the step-by-step process of how mummification took place:

1. Insert a hook through a hole near the nose and pull out part
of the brain
2. Make a cut on the left side of the body near the tummy
3. Remove all internal organs
4. Let the internal organs dry
5. Place the lungs, intestines, stomach and liver inside canopic
jars (Jars used by Egyptian to preserve body parts)
6. Place the heart back inside the body
7. Rinse inside of body with wine and spices
8. Cover the corpse with natron (salt) for 70 days
9. After 40 days stuff the body with linen or sand to give it a Mummification process –
more human shape Mummy of Herakleides
10. After the 70 days wrap the body from head to toe in bandages
11. Place in a sarcophagus (a type of box like a coffin)
12. If the person had been a Pharaoh, he would be placed inside a
special burial chamber with lots of treasure.
 What is Sarcophagus and it is placed ?
Sarcophagi : Used to bury leaders and wealthy residents in ancient Egypt, Rome, and
Greece, a sarcophagus is a coffin or a container to hold a coffin. Most sarcophagi are made
of stone and displayed above ground.

King Tutankhamun was laid to rest here in this well-

decorated burial chamber. The paintings on the
walls depict scenes of his afterlife, while his
mummified body was kept safe in a gold coffin
nestled inside a stone sarcophagus.

King Tut burial chamber

Sarcophagus Photograph by Victor R. Boswell, Jr.
taken from National Geographic
Encyclopedia
Ancient Egyptian Beliefs on Life After Death
• Ancient Egyptian believed that when they died their spiritual body would
continue to exist in an afterlife similar to their living world.

• Entry to afterlife was not guaranteed and dead had to negotiate a dangerous
underworld journey and face the final judgement before they were granted
access.

• If successful they were required to provide eternal sustenance for their

spirit, which could be achieved if proper preparations were made during a
person’s lifetime like

1) Purchase a small funerary items e.g.

 for protection and guidance like amulets, stelae and book of the
dead,
 items for essential nourishment, leisure and comfort like food, False door in the tomb of
clothing, jewellery, shabtis(workers for the afterlife or servants), the vizier Mereruka, 24th
etc. century BC, depicting his 
2) Commissioning or buying a coffin ka returning to the tomb
3) Building the tombs