Disgusting Things You’d Rather Not KnowBy Daniel Zalewski

Learning Turn Inc.All rights reserved

From the book:You wouldn’t want to be an Egyptian Mummy!

Disgusting things you rather not knowBy David Stewart, David Antram, and David Salariya

If you were going to be an Egyptian Mummy

What do you need??

• Your body• Linen• Oils• A Priest

Ancient Egyptians took a lot of time preparing for the afterlife. They believed the body had three spirits that survive after death only if the body was preserved. These were the ka, the person’s life, ba, the spirit of their personality, and akh, the glorified soul.

What could you afford??You would need to pay for your mummification so there were three

ways of mummification:

The Cheap Way- The body is injected with cedar oil and then it is dried

out using a natural salt know as natron.

The Mid-Cost Way- The organ are removed and embalmed. The body

is dried out with natron and then wrapped up in strips of linen.

The Luxury Way- The same as Mid-Cost, but with a portrait mask made

of cartonnage (plaster, linen, and resin combined) or, like King Tut,

made of solid gold.

Your body would be embalmed and mummified. Everyone who could afford it would make elaborate preparations for this. This was believed to preserve the body allowing the spirits to survive.

Removing Organs

What do you need??

• Your Scrubbed Body

• Tools• Natron

Salt• Knife

After your body has been cleaned you would have its organs removed. They take you to a “place of embalming” called a wabet. In order to remove internal organs, a “slicer” makes a long cut along the left side of your body

A hooked instrument is used to pull the brain out of the head through the nose.

(DO NOT TRY AT HOMEDO NOT TRY AT HOME)

Your organs are removed and would be embalmed separately, although your heart is left in your body ------ you will need this later.Once the body cavity has been stuffed, the cut along your left side is sewn up and covered with the carving of the eye of the sun god, Horus.

This is said to protect the body since the Eye of Horus is also known as the Protective Eye.

Storing your Organs

YOUR LIVER will be stored in a jar

with the human head of the god

Imsety on it.

YOUR LUNGS are stored in the jar

protected by the god Hapy, who’s

head is a baboon’s.

YOUR STOMACH is placed in the jar with the jackal head of the god Duamutef on it.

YOUR INTESTINES are kept in the jar with the falcon head of the god Qebehsenuef on it.

The Canopic Jars are stored in a specially made box called a canopic chest. This will be stored in your tomb and should be placed as close to you as possible.

Get Stuffed

After forty days in natron, your body is completely

dried out. Your skin is shriveled and wrinkled, and

You look like a piece of old leather. You are then

transported to per nefer (beautiful house) where your will be rubbed

with oils to make your skin softer. The empty space where your organs

where is stuffed with sawdust. The other parts of your body are

plumped up by pushing mud into tiny cut in your skin. They make you

fake eyes out of onions. Your starting to look like yourself again.

What do you need??

frankincense

molten resin

palm wine

sawdust

Natron

The Wrapping of the Mummy

The Egyptians would wrap the body in a special way in a certain order. The

order is:

1. Wrap your head

2. Wrap your torso

3. Wrap your legs (Right leg first)

4. Wrap your arms (Right arm first)

5. Wrap your legs together

6. Wrap linen pads within the bandage to round you

7. Wrap your arms to your body

8. Fold you within a cloth horizontally

9. Fold you within a cloth vertically

10. Secure you with rope

This process took 15 days and gave you 20 layers of linen.

Resin is used to glue the linen together.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Warning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You must

Must

Must

Bury all the equipment used to !!!!mummify your body!!!!

The CoffinWhat do you need?

Skilled Carpenters

Wood

Carpenter’s Tools

Paints

Once you have been wrapped, you will need a good

wooden coffin. If you are very wealthy, you could have as many as three coffins all fitting inside one another. Make sure they have pictures of the gods and all the correct spells painted on them to protect you. Of course, they should also have plenty of hieroglyphs singing your praises written on them. This nest of coffins will finally be placed in your tomb inside a large stone coffin called a sarcophagus.

Before burial rituals

1. The Weighing of the Heart Ceremony

2. The Opening of the Mouth Ceremony

3. The Funeral

You have now been dead for seventy days, and today

is the day of your funeral. You are finally about to enter the afterlife!! You will be buried on the western side of the river, where the sun sets. Your coffin is taken there by boat and is placed on a sledge and pulled to your tomb.

A priest leads a procession of mourners, followed by bearers carrying food offerings and all the objects you will need in the afterlife.

The Two Ceremonies

• The Opening of the Mouth Ceremony:

This takes place in front of your tomb. A priest touches your “lips” with symbolic tools to restore your

senses and allow your departed soul to return• The Weighing of the Heart Ceremony:

Your spirit is led to a scale by Anubis, who weighs your heart against the feather of truth. The result is

Recorded by the god, Thoth. A monster, Ammut, waits to eat the heart if it’s too heavy by its bad

deeds.

The Two Ceremonies: The Opening of the Mouth ceremony (left) and The Weighing of the Heart Ceremony (right)

The Weighing of the Heart Ceremony

Anubis (left), Thoth (center) and Ammut (right)

What you need for a blissful afterlife

•The Book of the Dead

•Your Ba

•Your Ka

•Chests

•Headrest

•Shabtis (servants)

•Games

•Boats

•Stools

•Wig Box

•Figs

•Meat

•Grapes

•Wine

•Bread

•And Much More

But not

Everything

Goes As Planned

Tomb Robbers

Tomb Robbers

Once your tomb is sealed you may think you’re

ready for enternal rest.

No WayEven before your family is home