The Mummy While watching the movie ‘The Mummy’ as a kid I never really thought about the historical information the movie held, and even if I did I didn’t really understand it. Of course we all hear stories of beautiful Egypt, but is what we hear a myth is the true question. ‘The Mummy’ was released in 1999 and is seen as a great action packed movie, but it also has the great ruins of Egypt thrown throughout the movie. Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn't seem to care much for doing background research before writing their stories regarding ancient Egypt. This movie is filled with great historical information, but just like every other movie it is also filled with myths. Filmmakers like to create myths or change up history to appeal to their audience …show more content…
A mummy is “a body embalmed or treated for burial with preservatives in the manner of the ancient Egyptians.” When thinking of a mummy the first place that comes to mind is Egypt. Egypt seems to be the place of most historical relevance on the subject of mummies, yet there have also been discoveries in China as well as South America. The purpose of preserving a person’s body was to ensure a safe passage into their afterlife. This may seem ridiculing to many now but it was practiced by ancient Egyptians daily. “By the 4th century AD, many Egyptians had become Christians and no longer believed that mummification was necessary for life after death.” This is where the significance of mummification began to decline. While acknowledging these several points the conclusion drawn is simple. Although the time period in which the movie was filmed does not serve as relevance, the ancient artifacts and settings displayed throughout the movie does. Mummification is an extremely interesting topic and is made very apparent in the movie. The city of Hamunaptra served as a city of fiction while at the same time led me to research more on the city of the dead. Hamunaptra was not real but the things that took place in it related to many things that the Egyptians did
Interestingly, X-rays reveal that the mummy case of Paankhenamun does in fact contain a mummy inside dating back to the years of c. 945 – 715 B.C. The practice of mummification was the Egyptian people’s way of preserving the spirits of the Gods/Goddesses and royalty. The idea was that when these beings came back to life, they would be preserved and well prepared for their next lives. By the time of the New Kingdom, the Egyptians already had developed techniques of mummification, which were done under a priest’s supervision (Stokstad 114), and since Paankhenamun was the priest of Amun, he was most likely was in charge of these procedures.
Since the movie is based on a true story, there aren’t very many parts that happen in the movie that never happened. The movie is extremely accurate in its portrayal of the military emotionally hardened father.
...Persian mūm meaning ‘wax’. In ancient Egypt, at the earliest stage, the people buried the dead in pits in the desert. The dryness and heat from the desert dehydrated the body, creating a lifelike natural ‘mummy’. The ancient Egyptians believed that part of the human spirit was permanently linked to the viability of the body.
illogical to some, the reasons for embalming the dead made perfect sense to the Egyptians. Mummification kept corpses in a desiccate, pristine condition; the body must be suitable for the owner’s spirit to return for a rendezvous, as per Egyptian belief (Evans, 20)....
The costumes worn are in keeping with the period in which the film is set (1930’s), and the female lead appears to be wearing a nightdress, which emphasises her status as a ‘damsel in distress.’ In contrast, the Mummy is dressed in keeping with the Westerner’s stereotypical image of Egypt – rags, medallions and talismans; the difference in costume between the Mummy and his sidekick and the foreigners greatens the differences between the two parties. The main focus of this extract is the special effects and spectacular location, and all the devices employed here add to these, rather than detract or distract from them. The film also appears rather ‘tongue-in-cheek’, perfectly aware that is playing to both genre conventions and conventional views of the foreign ‘other.’
The Egyptian Process of Mummification In ancient Egyptian society, preserving a body after death was an important process necessary for entrance into an immortal existence. According to Egyptian belief, the soul did not die. The soul would take the form of a bird, usually a falcon, and fly around in the world of the living returning later its dead body. The importance of preserving the body revolved around the idea that the roaming soul would be able to recognize the right body and return to it.
Mummification relates to Egypt, because before the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians used mummification, but instead of using chemicals such as Natron, they preserved their dead by desiccation. Before the Egyptians would then bury their dead in the arid desert with the deceased’s belongings. However, the wealthier Egyptians began to bury their dead in tombs, and used artificial mummification, which is removing the internal organs and wrapping the body in linen and burying them in coffins. But by the New Kingdom, the Egyptians perfected their mummification process, and had elaborate funerals for the deceased. Egyptian mummification is not used by the Egyptians frequently today, but the discoveries and texts were important in discovering how the Egyptians progress in science and technology.
The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt which was chosen as the burial ground for a great number of pharaohs and nobles of the New Kingdom; the New Kingdom in Egypt spans the time between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC which includes the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth dynasties of Egypt (Long 2015: 39). In 1979 an organization known as the Theban Mapping Project was organized to strategically catalogue the present and available archaeological record of the Theban Necropolis in the Valley of the Kings. “The TMP’s goal is to establish a historical and contemporary record of all monuments … and to prepare detailed topographical maps, architectural plans and surveys of their history and condition (Weeks 2000:1).” The book
Ancient Egyptians were very religious people with various beliefs and gods. Ancient Egypt consisted of the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. Not only is Ancient Egypt known for their outstanding architecture in pyramids, but also, their astonishing understanding of the human body. Mummification began around c.3500 BCE and by the Old Kingdom it had become a standard practice. Everything Egyptians did, including mummification had to do with their religious beliefs. They followed rituals to please the gods and therefore received something in exchange. Moreover, they believed that mummifying a body was preparing a person for their afterlife. The process of mummification changed depending on the person’s socioeconomic status.
Another accuracy in this movie was the concentration camps in this movie, they were portrayed very well. Just like history, immediately after arriving at a concentration camp, they were split up and divided by gender and age. As soon as they arrived people who the Nazis did not see fit to work were killed. Along with this people
...is very historically accurate because the film incorporates, characters private lives, real film and speech, and great filming technuques that highlight the previous two examples.
The movie was historically accurate mainly in the larger events; the director said 80% of this movie is factual. The Nero Decree by Hitler was factual, as well as the Monuments Men finding the artwork in the mine at Altaussee because of a dentist. While the causes of the deaths were not the same, it is true that only two Monuments Men died in combat (Donald Jeffries and Jean-Claude Clermont in the movie, Ronald Balfour and Captain Walter Huchthausen in history).
While it made for a good opening scene during the movie overall it’s not very historically accurate. During my research of The Siege
The most common ancient Egyptian burial practice is the mummification process as depicted in source B. Mummification is a ritual that embalmers performed when a pharaoh died. Source B is a photograph of the canoptic jars which are a main component of the mummification process. The first step in the mummification process is the removal and preservation of most of the internal organs, such as the lungs, the stomach, the liver and intestines. These organs are then separately embalmed and placed into canoptic jars as source B reveals. These jars were often decorated with one of the four animal-headed sons of the god Horus. Each head is believed to be the protector of each organ within the jar and is dedicated to a specific deity. The preservation of the organs is significant as they allowed the dead person to breathe and eat in the afterlife. The internal organs were then wrapped and put into either the body or put in boxes instead of sitting in jars. Canoptic jars were still placed in the tomb but they were solid or empty and provided a symbolic purpose. In Tutankhamun’s tomb the canoptic jars were discovered in a shrine that was found in the treasury room of the tomb. Source B is useful is when understanding the mummification process.
The elements that will be focused on are the multiple functions of the tomb and rituals, specifically the mummification of bodies. Ancient Egyptian tombs had many functions; the main function being to hold the bodies of the dead. Tombs were typically built during a person’s lifetime and were ready by their time of death (Olson, 2009). Before bodies were put in the tombs, they underwent a process called mummification to help preserve the body and keep it intact. The tomb was also a place where family members could come and visit the deceased. In the early years, tomb structures were very simple; they consisted only of one chamber (Grajetzki, 2003: 3-4). Later on, façade tombs were built— which consisted of two parts; an “underground chamber for the dead and the superstructure built above the ground, over the shaft and the burial chamber” (Grajetzki, 2003: 8). Next, the Egyptian tombs and ...