Mummy, Ancient Egypt - probably everyone heard about this. So many millennia flashed over the gray-haired massifs of tombs and pyramids, and they still attract and fascinate people from all over the world. Mysteriousness, gloom, unusual flowering of crafts, advanced medicine, exquisite culture and rich mythology - all this makes the ancient country alive and interesting.
Why mummified the dead
I must say that the mummies of Ancient Egypt (photos of many of them make one shudder) are a separate phenomenon that still causes heated debate. Is it possible to exhibit them in museums? After all, after all, it’s still the bodies of the deceased ... Whatever the case, tourists in many countries of the world can go and see the long-dead people whose earth shells are partially saved from the corruptive influence of time. Why did they create them? The fact is that the ancients believed in the existence of man after death directly in the place of his burial. That is why luxurious tombs and pyramids were built for the kings, which filled everything that could be useful to them after death. And for the same reason, the Egyptians tried to preserve the very body of the deceased from destruction. For this, mummification was invented.
The process of creating a mummy
Mummification is the preservation of a corpse using special techniques and drugs while maintaining the integrity of its outer shell. Already at the time of the 2nd and 4th dynasties, the bodies began to be wrapped in bandages, preserving from decomposition. Over time, the mummy (Ancient Egypt succeeded in creating them) began to be made much more complicated and more sophisticated: the entrails were removed from the body, and special plant and mineral preparations were used for preservation. It is believed that during the 18th and 19th dynasties, the art of mummification reached its true peak. It should be noted that the mummy (Ancient Egypt created a lot of them) could be made in several ways, which differed in complexity and cost.
Evidence of the historian
The historian Herodotus says that the embalmers interviewed the relatives of the deceased, offered them a choice of several methods of preserving the body. If an expensive option was chosen, the mummy was made in this way: first part of the brain was removed (through the nostrils with an iron hook), a special solution was injected, abdominal organs were cut out, the body was washed with palm oil and rubbed with incense. The abdomen was filled with myrrh and other fragrant substances (incense was not used) and sutured. The body was placed for seventy days in sodium hydroxide, then removed and wrapped with bandages, smearing gum instead of glue. Everything, the finished mummy (Ancient Egypt shows them a lot) was given to relatives, placed in a sarcophagus and stored in a tomb.
If relatives could not pay for an expensive way of preservation and chose the cheaper one, the masters acted as follows: the organs were not cut out, just cedar oil was injected into the body, decomposing everything inside, and the corpse itself was also put into the liquor. After a certain period of time, the withered and devoid body was returned to relatives. Well, a very cheap method, for the poor - this is the injection of radish juice in the stomach and after lying in the liquor (the same 70 days) - return to the family. True, Herodotus did not know or did not describe a couple of important points. Firstly, it is still not very clear to scientists how the Egyptians managed to dry the body, doing this extremely skillfully. Secondly, the heart was never removed from the body, and the rest of the insides were placed in special vessels stored in the tomb next to the mummy.
The end of the mummification
I must say that mummification for a very long time remained in Egypt and was practiced even after the introduction of Christianity. According to the doctrines of Christianity, the body does not need to be preserved after death, but the priests could not instill this in their flock. Only later came Islam put an end to the creation of mummies. Now the photo of the Egyptian mummy certainly decorates the catalog of any major museum that has a department of this ancient state.