Development of mummification in ancient Egypt

Mummification was one of the most substantial procedures in ancient Egypt due to being relevant to the afterlife and its essential rituals. Let us try to unravel some of the amazing facts of embalming the body of the deceased in different times.

Predynastric and early dynastic

The method of encircling the limbs and digits with layers of fine linen which was impregnated with resin became the standard practice in the early dynastic and old kingdom. At Saqqara, the body of a woman dating from the second dynasty with sixteen layers of broad linen bandages was found. Also, a body prepared in this way was found by digging the same necropolis later with the fingers wrapped separately and the breasts and genitals moulded. In this early period the body was still in a semi - flexed position. Within these carefully applied linen bandages there was no tissue left , and often its decomposition had charred the inner surface of the textile , which was then in direct contact with the bones . The aim of the Egyptians at this stage was to create an acceptable resemblance to the living body, and the process employed cannot truly be called embalming.

Old kingdom

In the fourth dynasty the next stage in the development towards mummification of the body involved the evisceration of the corpse to inhibit the process of decomposition. In a tomb at Meydum in 1890 Petrie discovered the extended body of a noble called Ranefer whose body had been eviscerated and the internal organs were wrapped in resin – soaked linen and placed in a recess in the wall of burial chamber.

Prepared bodies dating to the fifth dynasty are slightly more frequent than those known from preceding periods. From the fourth dynasty, the bodies of the royal family and nobles were interred in an extended position in wooden coffins with fine stone sarcophagi, frequently decorated on the outside with palace façade paneling.

Petrie has pioneered the use of X-rays in 1898 as a non destructive technique to study mummified remains. At Deshasheh he discovered fifth dynasty burials which showed signs of dismemberment, or at least subsequent rewrapping in which the bones had been misplaced. He used an X-ray to record the proof that the wrapped foot has the bones out of order, and that the leg and arm bones are wrapped together. These bones, which still have bandages around them, are preserved in his collection at University College, London.

The method of preserving the body by external wrapping and modeling in linen remained standard through the Sixth Dynasty. A male mummy was found at Giza , and this was examined by the anatomist Derry , who found that the skin had decomposed leaving only the shredded remains and had burned the inner surface of the linen . Plaster was occasionally used on the external surface of the linen to model the features, particularly the heads instead of resin.

The embalmers of this age were not able to preserve the body, but in this way they transformed it into a virtual statue which could be entered by the spirit.

It is known from Old kingdom tomb relieves, and from those of the new kingdom, that tremendous ceremony accompanied the process of mummification and burial.

Middle Kingdom

There is little evidence for mummification from the politically disunified first intermediate period, but bodies wrapped in linen, some with cartonnage masks, and canopic jars were found at Sqarra, dating to the Ninth to Eleventh Dynasities .

A group of mummies of eleventh dynasty princesses was found in rock- cut tombs at Deir el – Bahri, signifying that an improvement in technique had taken place. Their bodies were rapidly desiccated with dry natron , which is naturally occurring salt in Egypt composed of sodium carbonate (or bicarbonate) and sodium chloride ( or sulphate) . This ensured the preservation of the tissues and then the surface of the skin was coated with resin. They were not eviscerated however, and it seems from the dilated rectum and vagina that an oleo – resin (akin to turpentine) was injected into the anus in order to dissolve the organs for removal.

In the Twelfth Dynasty (from about 2000BC) the process of mummification became further elaborated and the technique approached that of the new kingdom, although significant advances in preservation had to wait until the latter period. All the organs, except for the heart, were removed from two bodies found at Saqqara , and the cavity was stuffed with linen , which was also pushed beneath the eyelids. The tissues were not well preserved, but the face of the man was coated with resin, including plugs in the nostrils, and he had a beard and moustache.

The lady Senebtisi , found at Lisht , also had her viscera removed from a flank incision , which was then sealed with a resin soaked cloth. Her heart had been packed with linen and replaced in her body, together with linen and sawdust soaked in resin. The four canopic jars , which by this time had human heads , were found in a rotted canopic chest , and only two of them had contents, all of which were in resinous masses , resembling human organs ; One perhaps the liver, another a parcel of intestines.

New kinds of funerary figurine also appeared, called shabtis, whose task it was to undertake work that might be assigned to the deceased in the underworld. In the Middle Kingdom these inscribed mummiform figures were roughly made of wood and enclosed in a wooden model coffin. In the New kingdom they became more elaborate and were made of painted wood, stone or blue faience.

Cartonnage face masks, made of waste papyrus or linen soaked in plaster with a painted or gilded surface, and placed over the head of the mummy, became fashionable in the middle kingdom. These may represent a link with the surface mouldings on the linen employed during the old kingdom. Another innovation was the introduction of the anthropoid coffin, usually fitted within the rectangular box coffin. It copied the mummy in form and further identified the deceased with Osiris. In the second intermediate period, the outer coffin was discontinued and anthropoid coffin elaborated into the rishi type with the outspread wings of the goddess Isis and Nepthys as kites protecting and mourning the dead person. In the new kingdom the anthropoid coffin became standard with painted religious scenes.

Mummification in the new kingdom

The period from the day of death to the funeral seventy days included mummification and the accompanying ceremonies

At first the body was taken to the Per - Nefer, the house of mummification, where the first stages of the process took place. The corpse was laid on the embalming table and the decomposed softened brain was teased through the nostril with a metal hook after the ethmoid bone had been broken. Then an incision was made in the left side of the abdomen by the cutter and the lower organs, except for the kidneys, were removed by the embalmer. The diaphragm was cut and all but the heart, the seat of the mind, was removed from the chest cavity. The internal organs were washed and soaked separately in natron , then treated with hot resin , bandaged , and packed in the four canopic jars.

The cavity left was cleaned, most probably with palm wine and spices, then stuffed with temporary packing material and the body was desiccated with heaps of dry natron. The toe and finger nails were secured with string to prevent loss during drying. The process up to this point probably took about forty days, and then the body was delivered to the Wabet, the house of purification, where it was washed with Nile water, a ritualized procedure to symbolize the rising of the sun from the river and the subsidence of inundation waters. Then the cranial cavity was stuffed with resin soaked linen, and the body cavity, emptied of temporary packing, was packed with linen bags of sawdust or myrrh soaked in resin, and the abdominal incision was sewn up . The surface of the body was rubbed with a mixture of cedar oil, wax, natron and gum, and then dusted with spices. The nose was plugged, and frequently pads of linen were inserted under the eyelids, although onions were sometimes used. The whole body was then coated with molten resin to close the pores and protect the surface. This resulted in the superior preservation so noticeable when compared to the tissue loss on the bodies of earlier periods. The bandaging of the body was a deliberate process over the latter part of the allotted seventy days. It seems that the embalming was over by the fifty – second day.

An enveloping shroud was wrapped around the body and then the bandaging continued. As the layered bandaging grew, amulets were placed in position as was sometimes done in the past. The head rest amulet, frequently made of hematite, was placed under the head and the udjat eye of Horus appeared as an individual amulet or on the plate placed over the embalming incision. All these amulets and others, such as the ankh sign, served a magical purpose in protecting the individual and renewing his specific strengths.

The mummy was then placed in its coffin on a sledge beneath a shrine and transported on a ferry to the west bank of the Nile where it was then drawn by oxen and men. Two women representing the goddess Isis and Nepthys, called the Great and little kites, proceeded with the sledge, accompanied by a band of mourners and priests, with libations of milk being poured before the way. All the grave goods were carried by servants at the near behind a second sledge transporting the canopic chest. At the tomb the procession was met by a group of dancers and a lector priest.

Second Intermediate and new kingdom mummies

For the second intermediate and new kingdom periods, the collection of royal mummies in the Cairo museum, Egypt, provides a wealth of information. Between 1966 and 1971 the mummies were the subject of investigations by X-ray which added more to our knowledge of the physical condition of the royal families of the eighteenth, ninteenth and twentieth dynasities.

The tomb of Tutankhamun is the best known in the Valley of the Kings and the smallest. The young king's body was not only intact within his solid gold coffin and funerary mask but also rested within two outer mummiform coffins, a sarcophagus and four golden shrines. Such lavish protection, which included 143 amulets within the bandaging, did not ensure the good preservation of the body, which had been burned by the lavish application of resinous liquid. The king was about eighteen to twenty years old when he died. His upper and lower wisdom teeth had just erupted, but his body does not show any pathological conditions which would have caused his death.

Twenty – First dynasty and later periods

The reburials provided the twenty – first dynasty restorers with the opportunity to observe the remains and they noticed that, although the new kingdom methods were excellent, they had not resulted in a totally lifelike appearance, because of the desiccation of the corpses. A change in the technique of mummification therefore resulted, with packing being placed under the skin through various slits in the torso and limbs. The surface was then often painted, with artificial eyes inserted, so that a doll like appearance was created. The packing materials were usually mixtures of linen, fat, soda, and sawdust, and changes in these substances over time have caused some of the bodies to swell. The packing within Queen Henttawi's cheeks burst open, so her painted features are no longer attractive, although her head is adorned by an elaborate coiffure of twisted black string. Al this stage , the viscera were wrapped around genii and re – inserted into the body cavity. Queen Henttawi 's embalming wound was sealed with a gold embalming plate bearing the eye of Horus .

Reference: Egyptian mummies by Barbara Adams

Intriguing metalworking in Egyptian artifacts

Mining and smelting

In ancient Egypt metals were mined in several areas, by open cast as well as by underground mining. Gold and copper were the first ones processed by the early Egyptian metalworkers. Later in the development of Egyptian metallurgy, electrum silver, iron, tin, bronze, lead and platinum were also worked. In addition, traces of nickel, zinc, arsenic, antimony and cobalt have been detected in small amounts in metal artifacts. Metals were also imported by trade or as a tribute from neighboring countries, especially gold and copper, of which great quantities were used.

Melting, casting and plate production

After the local or imported crude metal had been delivered to the storehouses of temples and palaces, it was weighed and registered by the Egyptian temple or palace administration. Before a quantity of metal was dispensed from the storehouses to the metalworkers for further processing, the metal had to be weighed again, to control the stock of metals and to prevent embezzlement.

Melting the metal

The first job which had to be done by the metalworkers in the temple or palace workshops was the melting of the crude metal. Egyptian pictorial and inscriptional sources depict the melting of copper, gold, silver, tin bronze or leaded tin bronze. In Old and Middle kingdom times, the melting of copper or arsenic copper for the production of vessels and tools for daily use was very common. In the course of the Middle Kingdom and in later period's tin bronze and leaded tin bronze were used. Silver and gold served throughout Egyptian history as the basic materials for objects of royal use or for the funerary and temple equipment.

The metal had to be melted because large ingots or other shapes of crude metal, which were customary in the trade , had to be refined or alloyed for casting or split up into smaller portions for further treatment by smiths.

The metal was melted in one or more crucibles using hearths depending on the amount required. The hearths were charcoal- fired. Charcoal was burnt extensively in the eastern desert and the Sinai. Temperatures of about 1000C (1800F)or even more could be achieved if the embers of the charcoal fire were aroused with suitable tools. In Earlier times fans of foliage might have been employed to provide a draught.

In the old and Middle Kingdom Egyptian metalworkers or melters used blowpipes consisting of reeds with clay tips . With blowpipes a strong blast of air could be directed precisely on to the glowing charcoal below the bottom of the crucible.

There is evidence that Middle Kingdom metalworkers used skin bellows, as mentioned in a text written on a coffin , although skin bellows, probably manufactured from the skin of a goat or a gazelle , have not been found in Egyptian depictions. Much more effective than fans, blowpipes or skin bellows were pot , drum or dish bellows . The dishes were of pottery, wood or stone fitted with skin or leather coverings.

Casting

A small limestone casting mould was found in situ beside one of the small hearths at the excavated site.. This mould was not used for producing objects by open –mould casting but to split the molten metal into smaller portions for further treatment by the smiths, who manufactured plates and sheet metal from the small portions. Moulds of this kind are shown on paintings and relieves in private tombs as early as the Old Kingdom where a metalworker is pouring the molten metal into the mould. To protect his hands, the worker used stones or blocks of wood to hold the very hot crucible. Sometimes, while the metal was being poured, another worker tried to hold back any contamination in the crucible.

Plate production

After being melted, refined and divided into portions, the cooled metal was passed to smiths or blacksmiths for plate or sheet production. Egyptian blacksmiths used very simple tools. The metal was beaten on an anvil made of stone (probably of basalt, diorite or granite) which was placed on a wooden block to absorb the hammering. The metalworkers beat the plates with simple hammer stones without a shaft .Two kinds of hammer stone were in use: one with a flat face and the other with a rounded one. A flat hammer stone was needed for smoothing the metal. While a rounded one was used for chasing. Smoothing and chasing hammer stones are depicted in private tombs from Old Kingdom times to the Ptolemaic period.

Egyptian metalworkers had mastered the technique for annealing as early as the predynastic Period. In the course of the chasing process the beaten piece of metal become hard and brittle and further treatment of the cold metal could cause it to crack. The piece had therefore to , to be heated or annealed, which caused a rearrangement of the crystalline structure of the metal and made it ductile again.

Gold leaf

The gold beaters used hammer stones to beat the foil, which became thinner in the course of the manufacturing process. Silver and electrum also worked to foil, or the thinnest leaf thickness. Objects of a less rare material were often gilded or silver plated. Gold, silver and electrum foils or leaves could be used to cover wooden furniture, statues, coffins and models of daily life manufactured for funerary equipment. Stone vessels, the walls and doors of temples and objects of base metal were covered with precious metal by wrapping the foil round the edge of the object or by inserting the edges of the foil into grooves cut in the surface of the underlying material.

In New Kingdom times or even earlier, Egyptian metallurgist mastered advanced techniques of gold refining in order to produce very pure gold, free of impurities which would be beaten out of the thinnest gold leaf.

The thinner gold leaf could be stuck to surfaces with an adhesive. For the decoration of wooden or stone objects with gold leaf a ground of gypsum plaster or a similar material was often applied first to the material before the gold leaf was stuck to it. It seems probable that metalworkers only produced the gold leaf while the gilding was done by the workers in wood, stone or wax who manufactured the objects to be gilded.

As described in an Egyptian papyrus of the Roman Period, metal gilders of that time knew the chemical process of fire-gilding with gold amalgam. Gold amalgam was applied to the base - metal object to be gilded. In the course of the fire –gilding process, the mercury content of the gold amalgam vaporized and the gold remained on the surface of the metal objects. As mercury fumes are extremely toxic, fire gilders or those living in the neighborhood of a gilding workshop were always in danger of mercury poisoning.

Reference: Egyptian metalworking and tools by Bernd Scheel

Hieroglyphics and Egyptian papyrus

The Greeks who first came across the ancient Egyptian monuments called the markings on them hieroglyphics, from the Greek words for “sacred carvings”. They thought that the symbols were used only for religious purposes, and that their secrets could be understood only by those familiar with the ancient religions. Actually, the hieroglyphics were not only carved on stone monuments but were also painted on wood and drawn with ink on papyrus , a form of paper made by the Egyptians. In more recent times, thousands of papyrus scrolls have been found preserved in the pyramids, the tombs of kings.
The Sumerians wrote on soft, damp clay, using a stylus- a piece of sharpened bone or reed for a writing instrument. When the clay hardened, the writing became permanent. The use of a stylus on the soft clay produced characters that were wedge- shaped. The name cuneiform, which is given to these symbols, means "wedge-shaped".
The oldest Sumerian tablets, dating from about 3500 B.C., contained serious of pictures of objects. The Sumerians discovered, however, that they couldn’t communicate everything they wanted through pictures. They soon came to let some of the pictures represent ideas or actions associated with them In this way, a picture of the sun could also be used for the idea of light, or heat, or a day. A picture of a foot could also mean walking or running.
Egyptian writings like Sumerian began as a serious of simple pictograms, then developed into a combination of pictograms and ideograms, and finally into phonograms or sound symbols. Unlike the Sumerians, who gradually changed their symbols into the wedge – shaped cuneiform, the Egyptians kept using their picture forms over the years.
On Tombs and walls and jewels and cliffs, Egyptians carved their hieroglyphs. Picture writing cut in stone, in amber, ivory, bronze and bone.
The complex hieroglyphics were retained for carvings on tombs and monuments, but for everyday writing the Egyptians needed something that could be done more easily and quickly. First they developed the hieratic writing, a simplified form of hieroglyphics. Much later, about 700 B.C., they began using an even simpler form called the demotic. Both of these forms were written chiefly on papyrus.

Papyrus and the scroll:

The ancient Egyptians discovered, somewhere around 3000 B.C, that they could make a kind of paper from papyrus, a reed that grew near the delta of the Nile river. Strips of papyrus were laid crosswise on a flat stone about twelve to sixteen inches square. The papyrus was then treated with gum solution and pressed, pounded, and polished until a flat sheet suitable for writing was formed. For longer writing tasks, the sheets were fastened together into a continuous band or scroll.
The Egyptians scribes wrote with a reed or brush on only one side of the papyrus, arranging their lines of hieroglyphs in columns. The papyrus scrolls had a roller - like rod at each end so that the reader could unwind one end and wind the other as he read.

A rolled up scroll could be easily carried and stored. Egyptian rulers realizing the importance of Papyrus, made its production a state monopoly, and guarded the secret of Papyrus jealously. The ancient Egyptians appeared to have used papyrus in so many ways. We know they made paper from

papyrus but they also used it to make sandals, wove it into mats, baskets and fencing, made rope and also used parts of the plant for food as well as a medicine. The reeds were bundled together to make boats and dried to make fuel for fires. There are undoubtedly other uses that the ancient Egyptians found for papyrus.

Refereces :the world of language - Egyptian-papyrus