Mummification In Today's Society

When a person in today’s society hears the word “mummification” or “mummy,” he or she often thinks of something related to horror films, Halloween, or even just toilet paper. However, many people know only that about mummies. Children dress up for Halloween as mummies by buying their costumes or making one out of toilet paper. Others just think of the famous mummy movies that almost everyone has seen. What it the real meaning of mummification? What is really a mummy? Where are they from and why did they exist? Do they still exist today? Mummification has greatly influenced today’s society in numerous amounts of ways, from making horror films to entertain people, all the way up to help many people of many ages dress up and have fun during the

Why did they want to preserve these dead bodies? Well, Ancient Egyptians believed that there was a soul that lived in the bodies. Because of this, they believed the souls could only live in a body that would last forever. They believed that if the body was not preserved, and if it were to rot and decay, then the soul of that body would not be able to live on forever. “In Egyptian religion, the spirit was made up of three parts: the ka, the ba, and the akh. The ka remained in the burial tomb, using the offerings and objects placed within it. The ba was considered the soul of the person, and it was free to fly outside of the confines of the tomb. And it was the akh that traveled to the Underworld for judgment, and to gain entrance into the Afterlife” (Ancient Origins of Mummification). It is said that “the earliest Egyptian burials date from 6500 years ago. But the evidence suggested that mummification using preserving oils and resins only began about 4500 years ago” (Ancient Origins of Mummification). It is believed that mummification had begun way before the ages years previously

Although these bodies have been dead for thousands of years, the way they were prepared and preserved has helped these bodies last for a much longer time. If you ask anyone how these bodies are well preserved, they might just say that they were wrapped up in a paper or cloth, and put in a coffin. Unfortunately to all of those that believe this, it is incorrect. How did a dead body last well preserved for such a long time? Well, as soon as a person died, the body was moved to a place where it could be embalmed. There, they would take out the internal organs that would rot and decay the quickest. In this case, they were the brain and viscera. What would they do to these organs? Well, they had 4 canopic jars, each used for a specific organ: the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver. They did this because they believed that these organs would be needed to survive once the mummy was reborn. What they did leave in the dead body was the heart, because it was believed that it was the location of “reason, emotion, memory, and personality” (The Insides Scoop on Egyptian Mummies), and it was considered to be “the seat of understanding” (Mummification). The body was then treated with a mineral called natron, which is found in salt. “It was then treated with ointments, spices and resins and wrapped in several layers of bandages”