The mummies
Connected to religion was the cult of the dead: convinced of the immortality of the soul, the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul, from time to time, returned to visit its own body, but that it could not live peacefully in the afterlife if the body was not kept intact (if the body decomposed even the soul would have been decomposed as well).
For this reason, the complex technique of embalming the bodies takes on a fundamental importance in Egyptian culture. The preservation of the body by mummification is perhaps the Egyptian religious practice best known also to the uninitiated and one of the most impressive features of the Nile civilization. Moreover, we must not forget that the arid climate and the porous soil of Egypt help to preserve the corpses by drying them up, while, elsewhere, humidity destroys the organic substances and in particular the animal tissues.
The name mummy has Greek origins. In fact the Greeks called mummy black the dye derived from bitumen or asphalt. During the colonization of Egypt, some embalmed bodies were found with asphalt or bitumen and said that they had been sprinkled with black mummy and, from here, the name of mummy. In reality in ancient Egypt there were two ways to call the body of a dead person: the corpse was called "khat", while the embalmed body was called "ui".
The first rudimentary embalming techniques probably date back to the 1 st dynasty when, almost certainly, only the pharaohs were embalmed.
Herodotus , during his trip to Egypt, described the rite of embalming with some precision:
at the death of a man of a certain importance, the women of the house sprinkled their heads with mud and then left the house going around the village, striking each other. The men also carried out the rite of beatings. At the end of this custom the embalming of the body could begin. To perform it, professional embalmers were used. They proposed some models with the related costs. A brief negotiation took place in which the price and type of embalming were defined.
In ancient Egypt there were three main methods to embalm a body:
- The first method, the most expensive, was presented according to the method that the god Anubis had adopted for the corpse of Osiris. The stripped body was lying on the ground with the head facing south. An embalmer, reciting a prayer, introduced a curved iron through the right nostril and with it extracted the brain. Recited another formula, a scribe traced on the corpse's side a long line on which another operator made an incision with a sharp stone. Immediately after one of the embalmers, having introduced the hand through the opening, quickly extracted all the intestines. The organs extracted from the corpse were wrapped in linen and enclosed, only for this method, in vases called canopi whose appearance recalled the deities depicting the four sons of Horo: Imseti (human head, liver), Duamutef (jackal head, stomach) , Qebshnuf canopic vessels (hawk head, intestines), Hapi (monkey head, lungs). The name "canopi" was attributed by scholars who found them for the first time. The discovery was made in Canopus, a small town near Alessandria where a real industry for the construction of these vases flourished and hence the name canopi. The abdominal cavity was first washed with palm wine and, later on, with aromas in powder and then filled with chopped myrrh, cassia and other aromas, except incense, and finally sewn up. At this point the body was immersed in nitro where it was left for 70 days. At the end of this period the body was washed again, spread with resins and cedar oil and finally completely wrapped in thin and very long rubber-soaked linen bandages. Amulets were placed at each turn of the bandage, including uadji, ures (head rest), ibi (heart), ankh, udjat (Horo's eye) and beetles; for each amulet place special formulas were recited. At the end of the bandage the mummy was returned to relatives.
- In case the intermediate procedure has been chosen, to avoid an expense too strong, the embalmers behave as follows: by means of syringes they fill the belly of the dead man with cedar oil without incising it and without extracting the viscera, but injecting the liquid from the anus. Then they put the corpse in the nitro for a period of 70 days. On the last day they extract from the abdominal cavity the cedar oil that comes out with such violence that they drag the intestines and the other soaked viscera with them: only the skin and bones remain of the body.
- The third method consists in cleaning the intestine with an enteroclisma, and impregnating the body with nitro for the 70 days established.
As it is easy to understand, in Egypt a true funeral enterprise was born, made up of professionals who carried out the various embalming requests.
Herodotus specifies that, in the case of the death of very beautiful women, the body was given to the embalmers only after 3 or 4 days from the death to prevent the embalmer from taking advantage of the body of the deceased to rape her. In the case of death in the Nile, the village where the body was found had to take care of its burial in the most respectful manner possible. His body can only be touched by the priests of the Nile who bury him as a superhuman being.
From the third dynasty the first viscera extractions begin, while the body washing process should date back to the V dynasty.
The ritual of embalming, as well as from Herodotus, is also described in the papyrus of Boulaq and in papyrus n.5158. They date back to the first century after Christ, but they are certainly a copy of a document dating back to the New Kingdom. In these papyruses the last phase of the embalming is told in detail, that is the material actions and prayers to be recited:
- Anointing of the head with perfumed oil
- Anointing of the body with 10 different types of oils
- Arrangement of the viscera in a vase where they will impregnate "the divine essence"
- Back preparation
- Positioning of the body so as not to scatter the various oils
- Gilding of fingernails and toenails; the fingers are wrapped separately and then covered with finger-shaped capsules
- Last anointing and wrapping of the head. Precious stones (turquoise and lapis lazuli) are placed in the openings of the garment before wrapping. There is a specific number of special bandages, after which everything is covered by a 4 cm wide bandage. The wrapped head is sprinkled with a special oil that must penetrate between the bandages to ensure adherence with the face
- Head finishing. Some vegetable products are put under the head, while the head is sprinkled with oils and perfumes
- Arm bandage. The bandages are painted with images of Gods
- Warnings for wrapping the right hand and the left hand and for the final bandage
- Anointing, perfuming, bandaging and bandaging of the legs with divinity designs. The papyrus ends with these words: "You live again, you live forever; you are young again, you are young again forever".
The embalming times are known: the embalming begins 4 days after death, the bandage begins 52 days after the beginning of the embalming, the deposition in the sarcophagus 16 days after the beginning of the bandaging and the burial 3 days after deposition in the sarcophagus.
The various phases of the embalming process were established by Leca in 1976 after a careful study:
- Brain ablation
- Evisceration
- First body wash
- Treatment of viscera
- Dehydration of the body
- Second wash
- Filling of the skull and abdominal and thoracic cavity
- Treatment of nails, eyes and genitals
- Anointing and body massage
- Application of a metal plate on the incision on the side
- Body treatment with resin
- Bandage
The dehydration phase was of particular importance. Herodotus says that the body of the deceased was "immersed in nitro" without specifying the modalities. Some experiments supported by Lucas prove, without leaving any doubt, that the best results are obtained by sprinkling the body with dry natron.
The first body ascertained to have been embalmed was that of Hetepheres I, mother of Cheops, buried inside his pyramid with 3 canopic jars containing organs.
Latest discoveries
- Recently, a group of researchers from the University of Bristol, England, led by Professor Stephen Buckley, carried out new studies that led to new knowledge. For example, it was discovered that the oils used to sprinkle the body of the deceased have the function of protecting the mummy from the humidity of the tomb and that the resins, or in some less well buried beeswax, acted as antibacterial agents that allowed better conservation.
- Some studies have revealed the presence of nicotine in the abdomen of a pharaoh. In this regard it should be noted that what has been found is a substance called nicotiana linneus which is very different from the nicotiana tabacus found in tobacco (a plant that grows only in South America). So far nothing has shown that the substance found is nicotiana tabacus and non nicotiana linneus.
