What Is Mummification?

Mummification is the preservation of a body, either animal or human. Some mummies are preserved wet, some are frozen, and some are dried. It can be a natural process or it may be deliberately achieved. The Egyptian mummies were deliberately made by drying the body. By eliminating moisture, you have eliminated the source of decay. They dried the body by using a salt mixture called natron. Natron is a natural substance that is found in abundance along the Nile river. Natron is made up of four salts: sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. The sodium carbonate works as a drying agent, drawing the water out of the body. At the same time the bicarbonate, when subjected to moisture, increases the pH that creates a hostile environment for bacteria. The Egyptian climate lent itself well to the mummification process, being both very hot and dry.

Why Did The Ancient Egyptian's Mummify Their Dead?

The Egyptians believed that there were six important aspects that made up a human being: the physical body, shadow, name, ka (spirit), ba (personality), and the akh (immortality). Each one of these elements played an important role in the well being of an individual. Each was necessary to achieve rebirth into the afterlife.

With the exception of the akh, all these elements join a person at birth. A person's shadow was always present. A person could not exist with out a shadow, nor the shadow without the person. The shadow was represented as a small human figure painted completely black.

A person's name was given to them at birth and would live for as long as that name was spoken. This is why efforts were made to protect the name. A cartouche (magical rope) was used to surround the name and protect it for eternity.

The ka was a person's double. It is what we would call a spirit or a soul. The ka was created at the same time as the physical body. The doubles were made on a potters wheel by the ram-headed god, Khnum. The ka existed in the physical world and resided in the tomb. It had the same needs that the person had in life, which was to eat, drink, etc. The Egyptians left offerings of food, drink, and worldly possessions in tombs for the ka to use.

The ba can best be described as someone's personality. Like a person's body, each ba was an individual. It entered a person's body with the breath of life and it left at the time of death. It moved freely between the underworld and the physical world. The ba had the ability to take on different forms.

The akh was the aspect of a person that would join the gods in the underworld being immortal and unchangeable. It was created after death by the use of funerary text and spells, designed to bring forth an akh. Once this was achieved that individual was assured of not "dying a second time" a death that would mean the end of one's existence.

An intact body was an integral part of a person's afterlife. Without a physical body there was no shadow, no name, no ka, ba, or akh. By mummification, the Egyptians believed they were assuring themselves a successful rebirth into the afterlife. The ancient Egyptian mummification process took 70 days.

In light of all that the Ancient Egyptians have told us in countless text and paintings about almost every aspect of their civilization, It is strange that they left such gaping holes in our knowledge. For instance, we know very little of how the pyramids were constructed, or how obelisks were raised. Like these mysteries, the ancient Egyptians have told us nothing about the mummification process. Perhaps it was considered so sacred that it was only past on verbally to those considered worthy of the knowledge.

One written record concerning mummification to have survived comes from the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt around 450 BC. He described how the Egyptians preserved their dead. But even with the help of Herodotus, many questions remain. Much of Herodotus' account of the process is sketchy and open to speculation. For example, how the Egyptians used natron to dry the body has been a controversy ever since early Egyptologists translated the text of Herodotus. Some translated it to mean that the body was "pickled" in a natron solution. This technique would require large vats to soak the corpses in, no evidence to support this theory has ever been found. Instead, there is evidence of large tables being used for the drying process. But it has never been clear why these tables are nearly six feet across, wide enough to fit two corpses. These and many more questions were answered during the mummification of Mumab.

The first step in putting together a modern mummy was to gather the tools and ingredients that would be needed for the process. A silversmith made replicas of Egyptian embalming tools (above). A master carpenter was enlisted to construct an authentic embalming table, similar to one found in an Egyptian tomb. The ceramics department of Long Island University was commissioned to make all the vessels needed for the process. Each marked with hieroglyphs to denote its function. That department also made the canopic jars and 365 ushabtis (left) one spiritual worker for each day of the year.