Download File - Bilen Mengistu

Mummification
Mummification
Bilen Mengistu
English Writing Skills 100
Mr. Julian von Bargen
December 3, 2012
1
Mummification
Abstract
Ancient Egyptians were the focus of many people for thousands of years. Their writing
systems, architectural designs, religions, and their ways of burying the dead were the
main fascinations of people all over the globe. Most of these areas were thoroughly
studied, especially the burials of the dead. The Ancient Egyptians used to carefully
prepare the dead for burials in the process called mummification, which is the
preservation of the body with the belief that the soul would reunite with the body in the
afterlife and live again. This research paper describes the background of
mummification, all the steps of the process and the burial places of the mummies in
detail. Thus, it will give us a glimpse on what the religion of the ancient Egyptians
consisted of, as well as the origin.
2
Mummification
Mummification
Egyptian civilisation began with the settlement of the Egyptian people near the
Nile River, located on the Northern East of Africa. This civilization developed using
different techniques on which to survive, by predicting the flood, and controlling the
growing of crops using water from the Nile River. They developed further by
constructing their own buildings using big blocks of bricks to build the Pyramids, forming
new writing system, taking up agricultural activities, and following the first Pharaoh that
united the Upper and Lower Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians also developed their
techniques on burying their dead by Mummification, dependent on the belief that the
dead will be resurrected back to the land of the living. We will now be diving into the
details of their religion, the process of mummification, who they mummified, be it human
or animal, and their burial places.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that a person was made up by three important
attributes; Ka (spirit), ba (personality), and the akh (immortality). Each of these three
elements had an important role in the resurrection of a person into the afterlife. The Ka
is the spirit that was created by the ram-headed god, Khnum, and it is believed to be a
person’s double. It stays in the physical world with the body and the Egyptian people
would leave foods and drinks in the tomb because it had the same needs as a person.
The ba was a person’s personality that was able to leave and visit the body’s remains.
The akh was the most important aspect, because it is the immortal soul that is made
when the Ka and the ba merge after they pass the judgment test by the gods in the
underworld, depending on the goodness of the person, then cross to the afterlife.
3
Mummification
Besides the foods and drinks that were left in the tomb the Egyptians also used spells
and chants to ensure the preservation of the souls and the body.
The first dead to be mummified was the god of the dead, Osiris. The idea of
mummification originated from the story of the god, Osiris, which started as a “popular
tradition” (Leca, 1981, p.3), and developed into a practice of preserving the dead. In the
story, Osiris was first known to reign good fortune on the ancient Egyptians which made
his brother Seth jealous and so he came up with a plan to murder his own brother. Seth
trapped Osiris in a chest by trickery, and threw the chest into the River Nile. Osiris’s wife,
Isis, searched for the chest all over the world and finally found it, but Seth came upon the
chest, cut up Osiris and scattered pieces of his body throughout Egypt. At that time,
Anubis, the jackal-headed god was sent by the god of the sun, Re, down from the skies to
put back the pieces together and wrapped it up by its own skin. Therefore, the god, Osiris,
represents all the dead that were mummified.
In order to go to the afterlife, the spirit of a dead person had to be judged by the
gods with the ritual ‘Weighing of the Heart’, whether it is good or evil. The spirit would first
cross a wide river and then pass through a gate guarded by grotesque looking monsters.
It would then enter the ‘Hall of Two Truths’ accompanied by the god Anubis and in the
presence of the god, Osiris. The spirit will proceed to swear to not have committed any
sin from the list of forty two sins, and then the spirit’s heart would be weighed on a pair of
scales against an ostrich feather that represents Maat, the goddess of truth and justice. If
the scales balanced, it would mean the spirit had lived a good and honest life. After,
Anubis would take –at this point-the akh, with Osiris, to find its place in the afterlife
becoming the ‘vindicated’ or ‘true of voice’. However, if the heart was heavier than the
4
Mummification
feather then a beast called the Devourer would eat the heart and put an end to the spirit’s
eternal life.
The Pharaohs (Kings), their spouses, and their relatives were the most important
people in the ancient Egypt because they lead their people through hardships; hence they
were especially carefully preserved so that they could continue to lead their people in the
afterlife too. This was proved by the tombs of the Pharaohs found from the early
Dynasties. For instance, Pharaoh Tutankhamen, known as King Tut was the ruler since
the eighteenth Dynasty. When his tomb was discovered the body was still unaltered after
all the years that it was a visible proof of the care shown to preserve it .There were a lot of
riches, paintings, furniture and many other artifacts uncovered from King Tut’s tomb that
fascinated many Egyptologists, including other less preserved mummies believed to be
servants for the King in the afterlife. Another example is King Seti I, who was thought to
be the greatest Pharaoh and warrior throughout Egypt. He Ruled Egypt in the nineteenth
Dynasty few generations after King Tut. King Seti I’s mummy was also well-reserved as to
have had a slightly unchanged face figure and body.
In addition to human mummification, significant animals also used to be
mummified. The belief first began when the ancient Egyptians were still settling in, and
they decided to choose animals as the representative and guardian of their different
territories by the qualities of the animal “such as strength in the bull, cleverness in the
monkey, and so on” (Leca, 1981, p.82). Then, their ideas of the animals developed into
an animal symbolising a particular god, for instance the crocodile representing, Sobek,
the god of the Nile, a cow representing Isis, worshipped as the ideal mother and wife and
the patroness of nature and magic, Bast, the goddess of fertility, the moon, and protector
5
Mummification
of children, represented by a cat and many more. The ancient Egyptians would also build
temples so that the people could visit to worship and pray to the gods through the animal
monumental, and later on they started to mummify different animals as they would do a
human so that they would also continue to the afterlife. One of the most worshipped
animal was the bull, representing, Apis, the god of strength. It was believed that if a
Pharaoh eats the flesh of the Apis bull, he would get the great strength of the god, Apis.
The ancient Egyptians had a step by step procedure of mummifying the dead.
Since they believed strongly on the passage to the afterlife, they were very careful in the
preserving the body of the dead. There were also different individuals in charge of
performing different tasks in the procedure. The Hery Sesheta, meaning Overseer of the
Mysteries was the priest in charge of the whole embalming and mummification process.
The Hery Sesheta wore the mask of the god, Anubis, which symbolises ‘Anubis watching
and guiding’ the priests in the mummification process. However, the priest’s main task
was to make the incision for the removal of the organs. The Hetemw Netjer, meaning seal
bearer of the god Osiris, assisted the Hery Sesheta with the death rituals. The Hery Heb
was a priest who read the spells and prayers associated with the rituals of the
mummification process. And the Wetyw were the individuals who did the roles of
removing the organs and bandaging the body of the dead. In addition, the ancient
Egyptians strictly applied the 70 day rule for the mummification process, which applied
equally to the rich and the poor. The first 15 days were spent on cleansing and
purification of the dead body, and second 40 days were the drying period, and the
remaining 15 days were finally spent on wrapping, bandaging and painting the mummy.
6
Mummification
The first thing done after the death of an Egyptian is that the relatives go into
mourning and they take the body to the embalmers and they agree over a price for the
mummification of the body. The embalmers first take the corpse for ritual washing. The
body was washed with palm wine to kill bacteria and rinsed with the water from the Nile,
and then the embalmers transfer the corpse to the ‘Place of Purification’, the embalming
hall called the Wabet. The second step was the removal of the brain by inserting a hook
through the nose into the nostrils to puncture the brain. The body was turned on its side
so that the liquefied brain would flow out of the skull. Next, a resin like a pistacia tree resin
and balm sap was poured into the brain which solidifies to prevent the skull from
collapsing inside the head. Then incisions were made in the body and the stomach, liver,
lungs and intestines were removed except the heart, because it was needed for the
judgment phase of the spirit. These organs were stored in different alabaster containers
called canoptic jars decorated with the heads of the four sons of the god of the sky,
Horus, which were believed to protect the organs; Imsety with the human head protected
the liver, Qebehsenuf with the head of a falcon protected the intestines, Hapy with the
head of a baboon protected the lungs and Dumamatef with the head of a jackal protected
the stomach. The canoptic jars also held a chemical compound called natron which helps
with the drying of the organs. Similarly, the embalmers would also fill the body with small
sacks of natron that would absorb the liquid in the body. After, the corps was washed with
water and then they applied oils, scents, spices and herbs. They would also pack the
upper body with lines soaked with the same oils, scents, spices and herbs and sew
together the open skin of the chest. Finally, the body was then covered with layers of
bandages coated with resin.
7
Mummification
The ancient Egyptians used to also bandage the mummies along with amulets
believed to be a protective magical object weather it’s a ring, bracelet or a necklace. The
Dung beetle was one of the most symbolic creatures in the Egyptian mythology, because
it does not have to mate to lay eggs and so they believed it to be a “spontaneous
creation, a gift from the gods” (Ancient Egyptian Scarab Beetle, 2004); furthermore, the
ancient Egyptians would carve it on coffins and make amulets in the shape of the dung
beetle. In addition, the Egyptians would leave offering like jewelry, pots, tools, baskets,
chests, canoptic jars containing the deceased’s organs and many more in the belief that
the person will use them in the afterlife, especially the masks that were made of gold,
usually for the royalties, in the hopes of giving the deceased an eternal human face.
These objects were placed in the coffins of the mummies that were first made of
rectangular shaped wood coffins, but as the techniques of the ancient Egyptians
developed the anthropoid coffins were invented which took the shape of a human figure
and decorated by texts from the Book of the Dead and drawings of a human face and
clothing. The texts were intended for protection and wishes of a smooth journey to the
afterlife, for instance:
I shall sail rightly in my bark; I am lord of eternity in the crossing of the sky.
I am not afraid in my limbs, for Hu and Hike overthrow for me that evil being.
I shall see light-land; I shall dwell in it...
Make way for me, that I may see Nun and Amun! For I am that Akh who passes
by the guards...
I am equipped and effective in opening his portal!
As for any person who knows this spell, he will be like Re in the eastern sky, like
Osiris in the netherworld. He will go down to the circle of fire, without the flame
touching him ever!
The ancient Egyptians not only developed coffins, but they also built tombs for
the mummies. There were different kinds of tombs made in the ancient Egypt as the
people developed new ways to bury their dead, including to protect the valuable objects
8
Mummification
left inside. In the earliest times, the Egyptians used to bury their dead under a pile of
rocks if they were poor. Later at around 3000 B.C they built tombs called mastabas for the
rich which is a flat stone made of sunbaked mud bricks which protected the mummy from
the harmful outside nature. Inside the mastabas there were L-shaped long narrow shafts
that made it hard for the grave robbers to pass through. The biggest tombs ever built after
the mastabas were the pyramids, which were the burial place for the Pharaohs and their
relatives. They have a majestic structure of four triangular flat sides and a square base
therefore; it had a better and larger design that can protect the dead inside. In the 1500
B.C, the Egyptians made tombs called the Valley of Kings, which was located in Thebes,
the capital city of Egypt during the Old kingdom. The Egyptians built it deep in the
limestone rocks on a remote dried up valley on the west side of the Nile River so that the
grave robbers would never find the coffins of the Pharaohs.
Ancient Egyptians were, in my opinion, the most creative and devoted people
that have ever existed. They used their own technique and skills to develop their living
environments and their religions, for they used the myth of the god of the dead, Oasis, to
bring up their own believes of preserving the dead in the mummification process, also of
protecting them with spells and building up the tombs to bury the mummies in. The
Egyptian’s fierce believes on the gods was what drove the people to painstakingly
preserving the body of the deceased, so that they could give the dead another chance at
life in the afterlife where they could get reunited with the gods and also live on earth as
immortals.
9
Mummification 10
Reference
Ancient Egyptian Scarab Beetle. (2004). Retrieved November 16, 2012, from
http://www.zarifas.com/egyptian_scarab.shtml
Andrews, C. (Eds.). (2004). Egyptian Mummies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Deurer, R. An Egyptian Mummification. Retrieved October 23, 2012, from
http://www.egyptartsite.com/mummy.html
Douglas, O. (2002). Animals and Belief. Retrieved from http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk
/AnimalMummification.html
Dunand, F. Lichtenberg, R. (2006). Mummies and Death in Egypt. London: Cornell
University Press.
Egyptian Mummification. Retrieved November 15, 2012, from http://www.kingtut.org.uk/egyptian-mummies/egyptian-mummification.htm
History Link 101. Mummification. Retrieved October 22, 2012, from
http://www.historylink101.net/egypt_1/religion_mumification.htm
Leca, A, P. (1980). The Egyptian Way of Death. London: Souvenir Press, Ltd.
The History Place. (1996, July 4). Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt.
Retrieved from http://www.historyplace.com/specials/slideshows/
mummies/index.html
Tombs for Ancient Egyptians. Retrieved from
http://library.thinkquest.org/J002046F/tombs.htm#
Who were the mummies? Retrieved from
http://www2.si.umich.edu/chico/mummy/who.html
Mummification 11
Why did ancient Egyptians believe it was necessary to mummify their dead? Retrieved
October 24, 2012, from http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/ancientegyptians-mummifying-dead-necessary