Egyptian mummies
In a recent article, published in the journal "Nature", a group of researchers, led by Prof. Stephen Buckley of the University of Bristol, using the tools of modern analytical chemistry, examined as many as 13 mummies of different periods, which cover the entire first and second millennium BC.
In ancient Egypt, the mummification of the bodies is due to their religious beliefs that identified, in each individual, three vital aspects: the Ankh , the vital principle, the Ba , the spiritual soul and the Ka , life as such. To these was added the Name , without which the individual (or even the thing) could not exist.
The deceased, once he had passed the weighing examination of the heart, which must have been as light as Maat's feather, and declared never having done as many as thirty different "sins", had to cross the Duat. At the end of the path in the Kingdom of the Dead, his Ka would then return by crossing the "fake door" and giving life to the physical body, which therefore had to be preserved, equipped with amulets and supplied with food and drink for its long journey. The presence of his name was also essential. Deleting it - as was done for Hatshepsut and Akenaton - was not just eliminating the memory, but denying its owner the right to exist again.
The oldest mummies that have come down to us are only bodies buried in the desert, which have been preserved only according to the particular climatic conditions and the terrain. One of these, in a crouching position on one side, is kept in the Egyptian Museum of Turin. Later, the techniques of embalming became more and more refined, reaching the maximum during the New Kingdom. They were secret proceedings, jealously guarded by the embalmers' corporation and nothing in writing remained about it. What we know has only come from Herodotus.
However, today's non-invasive physical / chemical technologies of investigation of mummies are making it possible to learn a great deal about the procedures followed. Unfortunately, there are numerous deposits of mummies looted in the past. Many were destroyed to obtain the famous "mummy powder" to which, in 6/700, particular magical powers were attributed. Others have even been used as fuel, given the scarcity of wood and coal, for the Egyptian trains. As it is known, the mummification procedures differed according to the class of the deceased. In all, however, sand from the Natron valley, located between Alexandria and the Al-Qattara depression, was used. This was rich in a mineral salt, now known as saltpeter, which has great dehydrating power. In the simplest mummification process, for the people of the people, it was limited to immerse the body in the natron, where it was left for 10/15 days, then to wash and cover it with essential oils and then to bandage it. For the middle class, the body was first gutted, and immersed in saltpeter for at least 30 days.
For the characters of the highest lineage, including Pharaohs, the mummification period lasted at least 70 days. The brain was extracted, to which no value was given, with hooks from the nasal cavities and the inside of the skull was washed with liquids that unraveled the residual parts. The heart was left in its place (it had to be weighed!) And the other viscera, also washed and dehydrated, collected and divided into canopic vessels bearing the name of the four sons of Horus: Duamtef, with the head of a jackal, contained the stomach, Hapy, a baboon's head, the lungs, Amset, a human head, the liver and Kebehsenuf, a falcon's head, the intestines. The subsequent dehydration in the natron, in this case, lasted at least two months.
Then the body was cleaned and, with a particular ceremony, washed in the water of the Nile and then with date wine. As Erodoto recounts, the abdominal cavity was therefore filled with shredded vegetables, such as myrrh, cassia and other aromas with religious meanings and antibacterial effects and, in the eye cavities, onions were often inserted. The corpse was then sprinkled with resins and essential oils and then wrapped in bandages impregnated with gummy substances, between which were inserted protective amulets for the journey in the Duat. The bandages could also have contrasting colors to create particular effects.
The sex of the mummy was then indicated by the position of the arms: crossed on the chest for the males, with an arm along the body for the women. With the advent of the Romans, the practice of mummification then gradually fell into disuse. From the mummies examined by the team of Prof.
