Egypt: Mummification in Ancient Egypt

About Ancient Egypt

 

Mummification in Ancient Egypt

 

For comprehensive information see our New Egypt Mythology Section and Old Egyptian Mythology Section. You may also read The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Mummification in Egypt by the Egyptian Government Funerary beliefs connected with Egyptian mummification.

Mummies of Ancient Egypt: The Process and Beyond by Catherine C. Harris


The walls are filled with colorful etchings and words of wisdom. Text from the three most important books of ancient Egypt: The Book of the Dead, The Book of the Gates, and The Book of the Underworld, cover the walls as far as the eye can see. The names of the wealthy pharaohs are present on the walls of the tombs in keeping with the belief that to speak the name of the dead is to make them live again.

The Mummy's Curse by Jimmy Dunn writing as John Warren



In late March of 1923, a novelist named Mari Corelli (Mary Mackay) published a warning that there would be dire consequences for anyone who had entered the sealed tomb of Tutankhamun. Perhaps this revelation was inspired by the fact that on the day Howard Carter opened the tomb, his pet canary was swallowed by a cobra. Cobras, as the goddess Wadjet, were the protectors of the Pharaoh. Lord Carnarvon financed Howard Carter's explorations. He had been in poor health for over 20 years following a motoring accident. When he died of pneumonia in Cairo on April 5th, 1923, only a few weeks after Mari Corelli's warnings, newspapers and other media throughout the world simply went crazy.

An Overview of Mummification in Ancient Egypt by Jimmy Dunn writing as Jefferson Monet



In Egypt, a combination of climate and environment, as well as the people's religious beliefs and practices, led first to unintentional natural mummification and then to true mummification. In Egypt, and particularly ancient Egypt, there was a lack of cultivatable land and so the early Egyptians chose to bury their dead in shallow pit-graves on the edges of the desert, where the heat of the sun and the dryness of the sand created the natural mummification process. Even this natural process produced remarkably well preserved bodies. Often, these early natural mummified bodies retained skin tissue and hair, along with a likeness of the person's appearance when alive.

 

 

 

Last Updated: June 12th, 2011