Ancient Egyptian Mummies By Emma Smith
Mummies are ancient Egyptians humans that have been preserved. This is done by removing the organs and putting them into special jars so that certain gods can look after that body part. They don't remove the heart as it is believed that the heart holds the person's personality. They believe the brain is useless, so they take it out by the nose using a long wire with a hook on the end of it and throw it away. Egyptians believe that you will go to a beautiful place after you die. The ruler of the under world is Osiris, the God of the dead. This means that they will live forever, but it was quite hard to get there. You had to pass all the challenges such as passing a river of lava, defeating evil gods and goddesses and the weighing of the person heart against a feather to see if the person has sinned a lot. There is a special papyrus used to cast a spell to kill the evil gods and goddesses. This book is called the "Book of the dead". Everything in the tomb is used for your future in the after life.
There are steps to preserve a body.
The first step is to take out the internal organs, like the liver,stomach and intestines.These were put in a special salt know as natron and were then placed in jars called canopic jars. all the faces on a jar represent The Four Sons
of Horus:
Imset, Duamutef, Qebehsenuf, Ha'py
keepers of those body parts
The next step is to cover and stuff inside the mummy with natron and leave it for 40 days. the next step is to put oils and water so the skin is still stretchy. The next step is to stuff the mummy with sawdust, fabric and leaves to make it look more life like. Then the body is covered in sweet smelling oil.
Now the body is ready to be wrapped. Head to neck are wrapped first and tightly. Then the fingers and toes individually wrapped. then the legs and arms. between the wrapping of the linen layers there would be amulets placed to protect the person in the after life. then the priest come and chants spells from the book of the dead as the mummy gets wrapped ,this is believed to keep off evil spirits and a safe journey to the afterlife.
After the priest has read all the spells, the papyrus is placed in the mummy's hands. then more wrapping. some of the bandages are painted with resin or gold (if you are wealthy). then you are placed in a coffin and buried.
If a cat died the family would shave their eye brows. Cats are very important to the Egyptian so they would have a funeral and a burial. The cat would represent the goddess Basta.
There are steps to preserve a body.
The first step is to take out the internal organs, like the liver,stomach and intestines.These were put in a special salt know as natron and were then placed in jars called canopic jars. all the faces on a jar represent The Four Sons
of Horus:
Imset, Duamutef, Qebehsenuf, Ha'py
keepers of those body parts
The next step is to cover and stuff inside the mummy with natron and leave it for 40 days. the next step is to put oils and water so the skin is still stretchy. The next step is to stuff the mummy with sawdust, fabric and leaves to make it look more life like. Then the body is covered in sweet smelling oil.
Now the body is ready to be wrapped. Head to neck are wrapped first and tightly. Then the fingers and toes individually wrapped. then the legs and arms. between the wrapping of the linen layers there would be amulets placed to protect the person in the after life. then the priest come and chants spells from the book of the dead as the mummy gets wrapped ,this is believed to keep off evil spirits and a safe journey to the afterlife.
After the priest has read all the spells, the papyrus is placed in the mummy's hands. then more wrapping. some of the bandages are painted with resin or gold (if you are wealthy). then you are placed in a coffin and buried.
If a cat died the family would shave their eye brows. Cats are very important to the Egyptian so they would have a funeral and a burial. The cat would represent the goddess Basta.