What are the steps in egyptian mummification in detail?

Question

In order please.

Answer 1

Embalmers were given the task to preserve the deceased. Not only did their job require knowledge of human anatomy, they also had to perform rituals at several stages during the process. It is noteworthy that the Egyptians themselves considered embalming so sacred and secret that no record of the process comes from them but only from foreign observers.

Soon after a person died, their body was rushed to the embalmer to prevent early decay. A typical mummification took 70 days in which craftsmen raced to finish the tomb.

The first step in Egyptian mummification was the removal of all internal organs which are prone to rapid decay. The brain was removed by breaking the bone at the end of the nose with a chisel and inserting a special hook up the nostrils and into the skull. The hook was swished around, breaking down the brain. The now-liquified brain was poured out of the skull through the nose by tipping the head to its side.


Mummified cat from ancient Egypt. Musée du Louvre, ParisEmbalmers also removed the stomach, liver, lungs and intestines through a small incision on the left side of the abdomen. According to Herodotus, the man whose job it was to cut the incision was then chased away, for it was thought that the human body was sacred and it was a crime to harm it. The heart was left in place because it was thought to be the centre of the body. The organs which were removed from the abdomen were stored in so called canopic jars, modelled after the four sons of Horus, who would protect the organs, and place them in the tomb during the burial ritual. It was believed the person would need these organs to live in the afterlife. Because the function of the brain was not known at the time, it was discarded. In later dynasties, the abdominal organs were treated and wrapped and returned to the body, but unused canopic jars continued to be placed into tombs.

The body was then washed with palm wine. Because of its high alcohol content, it would kill much of the bacteria that had already begun to reproduce.

Next, all moisture would be removed from the body by inserting linen-wrapped pouches of natron (a type of salt found on the banks of Lake Wadi Natrun) into the abdominal cavity through the incision. The rest of the body was then covered with natron and left in the heat. The result was a dried-out, but recognizable body. The abdominal incision was then covered with a metal plate bearing the Eye of Horus (wedjat) which symbolically healed it.

Finally, the body was wrapped in large amounts of linen, some of which contained spells to help the deceased in their passage to the afterlife. After several stages of wrapping, the body would also be coated in warm resin, before wrapping was continued. The coatings of resin would ensure that the linen wrappings stayed in place. The resins likely included frankincense and myrrh.

To further protect the deceased, magical amulets were placed on specific parts of the body between the layers of wrappings. These included:

Ankh
Scarab
Djed-Djed pillar
Pectoral
Mummy and mummy cases

Answer 2

Some of the answers previously given are utter nonsense, others are partially correct, and some do quite well. I suggest you do a search for "Bob Brier" an American Egyptologist who has done a great deal of research into Egyptian techniques of mummification and several television specials on the topic. He was also the main promoter of the "Tutankhamun's Murder Solved" craze a few years back, which is demonstrably inaccurate in it's conclusions, but his work on mummification is reasonably accurate.

Answer 3

Its been a while but lets see

1 wash the body
2 open the chest and remove the organs and jar them
3 close the chest
4 remove the brain through the nose
5 wash the body in a special fluid (herbs and spices)
6 wrap the body in linen strips
7 add Muir to the wrappings
8 bury in fine sand for 4 weeks
9 complete the wrap of the body
10 place in coffin depending on wealth of deceased

Answer 4

I am not sure about the mummification process but I do know it took something like 1 or 2 months. The priests that did it had to open the mouths of the dead

Answer 5

Go to The Discovery channel or to The National Geographic channel websites and look up a show one or the other had on that... there was a man who actualy did a mumification accourding to all the steps of the eygyptians.

Answer 6

First they would remove the important organs (heart, lungs, liver and stomach) and put them in jars. The body was then covered in salt and left for a month to dry out. It was then coated with resin and anointed with oils and wrapped in bandages.

Answer 7

It dpends on how much you were willing to pay. Poorer people got quicker and sloppier mumifications than did Kings and High Priests.

Answer 8

That's a hard question Try yahoo search it will give you adresses
of other sites I've tried it they gave pictures as well

Answer 9

Invader Zim has it down packed.

Richer people were covered in honey before mummified to prevent decay.

- 16 yo Pagan

Answer 10

disimbowel the guy, stuff him and pour stuff in him to make him smell garden fresh and so the poor guy doesent rot, rap him up, place a couple charms and amulets, rap him some more, continue rapping him up with little charms, stick him in a box, then stick him in a painted sarcophagus.