How would mummies get preserved or were's a place i can learn???

Question

Another question for the Global studies project!!!

Answer 1

There are two kinds of mummies. One is the 'accidental' mummy, which often occured in the desert country when a body was buried in the sand - either a human body or an animal body. The process is known as dessication, which is another word for dehydration. The dry sand and the dry winds in the desert suck the moisture from the body and unless there is moisture in a body, it won't rot. That's the same principle used to make things like beef jerky. The moisture is removed from the meat, so it stays good for a very long time.
The other kind is the ceremonial mummy. In these cases, a body was put through a process to preserve it, which included removing the organs and sealing them in canoptic jars, then applying dessicating salts to the rest of the body, and in some cases, coating it with resin to help preserve it. Then the mummy was wrapped with linen bands - usually there were many layers of these bands. It took about 60 days to complete the mummy. After that, it was placed in a crypt or a burial vault. Again, because most mummies were produced in the Andes or in Egypt, the climate was very dry, so the bodies didn't get wet and there was no way for bacteria, mold or other intrusive elements, to attack the body and it was preserved remarkably well.
Other bodies have been preserved in ice, but this was usually the result of falling into a crevice when crossing a glacier. These are not called mummies, but they are wonderfully preserved. The other type of preserve body is found in peat bogs, usually because that's where criminals were disposed of after execution (usually by hanging). The tannin in the peat preserved the bodies, just as it preserves the leather that is used to make shoes, so these bodies survived as well, although they were not given any special care.
Does this help?

Answer 2

That's a slightly macabre question... I like it.

But unfortunately, I don't really remember how it's done-- I saw it on The Discovery Channel once, I think, but I can't remember exactly how it was done. Try Googling "Mummification" and see what comes up.

Answer 3

Mostly, they salted them down like a Virginia ham. The Egyptians had this natural salt called natron, whose chemical formula I don't recall, and after they gutted you like a Christmas goose (they'd pull out your brain through your nose with a hook, a detail related to me by my sister, who learned it in anatomy class) they sort of packed you in salt so you wouldn't rot. Your heart and brain and the rest of you went in a separate jar with your name on it so you wouldn't get separated in the afterlife, or the natural history museum, or wherever fate took you.