Mummification process among the ancient Egyptians
The term mummification refers to the procedure by which the bodies were preserved (today the term mummification is much more used than embalming). At the beginning this procedure was used only for the sovereign and his family but later in time this practice was gradually spread also in the various social strata.
The embalming technique was very complex and the priests had to have knowledge of anatomy to abstract extract the organs without damaging them.
With a long and curved iron at the tip they extracted the brain from the nose, so as not to cut the skull and then applied a clean cut along the whole torso to extract the other organs. After the organs were extracted, the body was immersed in salt water for about forty days to mummify it. The inside of the body was filled with scented oils and spices and then wrapped in bandages, which acted as an insulator for the air.
Between the various layers of the bandage the priests inserted amulets. Some, in the shape of beetles, eyes or columns, were real jewels, intended to protect the deceased from the dangers that could have threatened him in the other world. A scarab was placed in the place of the heart. On the back it bore a chapter from the book of the Dead, which referred to the judgment of the soul. With this the deceased was urged to his heart not to contradict him and not to lie to him before the gods.
The mummy was placed in a sarcophagus, which could be made of stone, simple wood or covered with precious materials. Initially the sarcophagi were rectangular, but later they were built with human form. Even the organs were placed in the pyramids together with the body, in fact the bowels, once extracted from the body of the deceased, were washed and embalmed; later they were placed in four vases representing as many divinities called Daughters of Horus, which had the task of protecting the organs from decomposition.
These containers, with lids in the shape of a man, a jackal, a baboon, and a hawk, were made up of canopic jars. Probably their name derives from the city of Canopus, near Alexandria, where there was the cult of Osiris, adored and represented by a vase with a lid in the shape of a human head; according to another version, Canopus was a mythological character who was buried in Egypt. The canopic jars were placed in a box which, during the funeral procession, was pulled by a sled.
Duamtef (1)
jackal head; it protected the stomach and was connected to the goddess Neit and to the east.
Hapy (2)
baboon head; it protected the lungs and was connected with the goddess Neftis and the north.
Amset (3)
human head; it protected the liver and was connected with the goddess Isis and the South.
Kebehsenuf (4)
hawk-headed; it protected the intestines and was connected to the goddess Sekhmet and to the west.
Life after death
The Egyptians did not see death as the end, but as the beginning of a new existence. For the journey to the afterlife they procured all the objects they had used in their earthly life. In the tomb, together with the body of the deceased, they placed furniture, food and jewels ...
According to what the Egyptians believed, the body was made up of three parts: the BAI (the soul), the KA (the life force) and the AJ (the divine force). To have life after death, the KA needed the body and to be able to preserve it they resorted to the technique of mummification which varied according to the social class to which the deceased belonged.
The deceased had to be recognized in the afterlife. For this reason, a mask with an idealized portrait was placed over the bandages that wrapped the mummified body. The masks of the pharaohs were made of gold and lapis lazuli. According to the myth, in fact, the flesh of the gods was gold, their hair of lapis lazuli and their bones of silver, a very rare material in Egypt. The pharaohs, represented with the appearance of the god Osiris, ruler of the kingdom of the dead, wore a rayed headdress with the cobra, their protector snake, in the front part. Her arms were folded over her chest and one hand held the royal scepter, while the other held a whip.
The ushabti, a word meaning "those who answer", were small statuettes that were placed in the tomb of the deceased and were useful for life in the afterlife. The most precious were made of lapis lazuli, but they could also be wood or stone. Often these were male figures with a plow or a hoe and a sack on their shoulders who, in the front, carried a chapter from the Book of the Dead engraved. The ritual declamation of the inscription gave life to the statuettes that would thus have worked in the place of the deceased. In some tombs hundreds of ushabti have been found; in particular in the tombs of the pharaohs the number of ushabti was very high.