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Ancient Egypt Magazine

Issue Four - November / December 2000

An Early Fascination with Embalming

Currently, fascination with mummies may never have been greater, but there’s certainly nothing new about it.

Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century BC, was given information by the priests in charge of mummification regarding the mysteries of the process. He describes it in his second book of history, Euterpe, in great detail, identifying three basic “models” available, from the best quality to a cheap version.

It is from Herodotus that we learn about the brain being removed through the nose with an iron hook – still a subject of the greatest interest to children today – and the opening up of a cavity in the body with a special knife. In the best quality preparation, the whole content of the abdomen is removed, he writes; then the inside is cleaned out with palm wine and pounded spices. Various aromatics were used at different stages in the preparation process, and the body was artificially desiccated by covering with natron, the “sacred salt” of the Egyptians.

Then, of course, the body received further treatment with resins and spices, and it was wrapped. Modern investigators have discovered forty or more layers in some mummies, some of high quality cloth, others of more coarse, domestic linen. The funerary linen-cloth industry, and indeed the funerary industry as a whole, was a major part of the ancient Egyptian economy.

In the cheapest version, Herodotus advises, the intestines and internal organs were not removed, but an injection of cedar oil was injected into the anus which was then stopped up until the internal organs liquefied. The natron treatment was available too, in this version. One cannot help but think that the purpose of the cedar oil was simply an attempt to cover up the appalling stench of naturally liquifying internal organs.

Once prepared, the bodies were placed in coffins, in the case of the more expensive burials, or simply handed back to the family of the deceased, according to Herodotus.

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