Special articles, The art of Mummification between science and superstition, part.1

No doubt that the ancient Egyptians were the only nation managed to defeat decay and deterioration and were the first to conquer time. The very confident faith on the realty of the life after death was the main motivation for the mummification art to begin. In fact comprehending the secrets of the art of mummification is encountering a lot of difficulty since its swinging between science and superstition. The mummification process aimed at preserving the body as well as keeping the look of the human body a match to the case before death which is a very difficult task as it should require a deep scientific knowledge in order to provide the confident skill that can lead the process to accomplish its target. Also the mummification process aimed to serve the faith of the resurrection which was the main creed for ancient Egypt. The invention of the embalming synchronized with the progress in the science of medicine and the surgery as it is observed with pre- historic and archaic preserved bodies. Ancient Egypt, in common had started the fetal mummification since its pre-dynastic.

Painting”1”, by the author. A pre-dynastic fetal mummy.

The spread for the fetal burial in Pre-historic Egypt is enough evidence on having the ancient Egyptians to be familiar with the surgery and the dissecting. Their attempt to mime the fetus in its final positions before birth is a clear reflection for that early knowledge they reached. Some of the archaic and pre-dynastic fetal mummies were fully dehydrated by getting it exposed to the sun and some were treated by getting it cased with bitumen. The mummy of Ginger” picture -1 “which is around 3200 B.C, is the oldest mummy found in history and in ancient Egypt also its is the best example for the fetal mummification style of the late pre- dynastic period. The main challenge for scholars and experts who would seek imitating the Egyptian mummy is the lack of recorded practical experience as no body saved any previous experience as well as the lose of the know how about the mummification from old generations to modern ones. It was so different with ancient Egyptians who managed to save their experience on the mummification art from one generation to another and even before the invention of the writing. The dilemma for getting an approval on one mummification technique to be effective is as simple as it requires passing the knowledge and the experience from the master embalmer to his flowers continuously, for more than three thousand years which modern scholars are not able to get.

Figure -2, A funeral label, Reign of King Djer ,3200 B.C, the Egyptian museum . Painted by Yasser kamel

A reference on getting the ancient Egyptians to abandon the fetal mummy style and to adapt the Osiried mummy style, found on king Djer funeral label “figure-2’ where you see the funeral bearers while holding a mummy which is most probably the mummy of king Den. Book of the dead refers to necessity of getting the deceased body to survive the decomposing and the deterioration factors, therefore, the ancient Egyptians believed that once to keep a copy from book of the dead which includes the essential hymns and spells it can protect their bodies against worms, insects and deterioration.

Painting”2” painted by the author. Book of the dead of Nakhet, about 1400 B.C. Royal scribe Nakhet while slaying a beetle.

Painting “2” represents Royal scribe Nakhet while slaying a beetle, most probably that beetle is from the dermastidae beetles which feed on flesh. Book of the dead of Nakhet has spells against worms, beetles and corruption. It is fascinating to imagine once we study Egyptian pre-dynastic fully naturally preserved mummies or semi-naturally preserved ones that the embalmers of that period would know about the value of being a dead body dehydrated in order to protect against decay. Ancient Egyptians seemed to share us a lot of scientific knowledge as for example the fact that a human body has what can represent %75 of its total weight just liquids and that what the fungi and bacteria can survive and breed on after death for the human being! So the embalmers had to find the right method to cause the dehydration for the corpse such as getting the body exposed to the sun as well as counting on the minerals of the Egyptian desert to cause the process of osmosis to begin. Then what happened later was amazing as ancient Egyptians discovered what minerals and salts could do for preservation. The importance for salts is more observed in the hieroglyphics as its word Netri or Natron had been driven from the word Neter which means god which literally means the divine salt. In fact the word Neter referred to nature in ancient Egypt and it inspired most of other languages, the word Nature. The Natron salt is found naturally as a mixture of sodium carbonate, soda ash, sodium bicarbonate ,sodium chloride and sodium sulfate, actually it is a stunning salt as it is cable to dehydrate with minimal damage to tissues meanwhile it keeps its fresh appearance intact. Egypt naturally gifted with that salt and mainly in the Natron Valley where it was found by the ancient Egyptians. Osiris was the first king that ruled Egypt and this is according to what ancient Egypt wrote, Osiris was the first to be mummified in a different style than the fetal one which is named the Osiried-style. The mummification art was mastered in ancient Egypt once the Natron salt was discovered but it flourished once embalmers realized the importance of the organs removal in order to get rid of the fungal and the bacterial damage.By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved.

Offerings of Gods in ancient Egypt.

Offerings of Gods in ancient Egypt.

Religion in ancient Egypt occupied a great space of attention in a way that may allow us to count the Egyptians to be the most faithful people to their gods in the ancient times. In fact ancient Egypt heritage is the richest in number of religious structures and religious scripts. Once we search for ancient Egypt welfare indications we reach one bold fact which is gods of ancient were the luckiest. Egypt was first ever to produce the wine, the beer and the ale and certainly the Egyptians gods had their share. The wine produce was so common that scenes of tombs of Nobles never ceased to depict the techniques of making it. The amount of scenes of alcoholic drinks presented to gods is countless that scholar have to admit that Egyptian were alcoholic nation.

Egyptians were fortunate with weather as they enjoyed a stable one which helped in growing the best grapes and to keep the finest vine- yards, the scene above”1” is from the tomb of Vizier Sennefer , 1300 B.C, it represents a large arbour tree of grapes which is a part of the tomb’s ceiling. Tombs and houses of Aristocratic Egyptians were often to include a winery. The most incredible number of alcoholic containers which is estimated to exceed one thousand jar their shards were discovered in Sakkara under the step pyramid of king Zoser. Generally the Egyptian were keen to save records of making their alcoholic drinks to avoid obliterating that secretes of that unique art.

Carving “2” from Mastaba of Ka-gem-ni,Sakkara,2500 B.C.

The carving above “2” is from Sakkara and represents the workmen while sliding a massive pair of wine jars in the storage. The carving is found in the mastaba tomb of the judge and the noble Ka gem ni.

Carving “3” from Hatshepsut temple, west bank Luxor.

The carving above “3” represents king Thutmoses III while serving god Horus the Erap wine jars. The second common scene of offerings is the one of gods food. Gods food is often shown laid on offering tables that are presented by the pharaoh. Gods generally offered the best of what was grown in any field and the best of any product as their satisfaction is essential to maintain the wealth and the fertility of the country. The pile of food provided to gods usually to contain variety of vegetables and samples of domesticated animals and changes are easily observed in scenes of offered food according to the dynasty and the Egyptian welfare. Most of old kingdom scenes of food offerings included birds except chicken and goose, also it had fruits apart from pomegranate! The Egyptian history mentions that the chicken and the pomegranate were introduced to Egypt then to Africa latter by the Egyptian king Thutmoses III just about 1300 B.C for the first time and both became tolerated by the Egyptians that no scene of food missed them ever since. The origin for the chicken , the pomegranate and the geese was ancient Syria. The goose was introduced by king Snefru about 2500 B.C after his expedition to Syria. Indeed observing the offering scenes can be an accurate source for getting familiar with the flora and fauna in ancient Egypt.

A carving “4” from the temple of Dakka, King Erkamun.

The carving “4” above from the temple of Dakka in Upper Egypt and it represents the food offered by King Erkamun to the gods and its noticeable the missing of the chicken and the pomegranate and it sounds that both were not common in Upper Egypt or lower Nuba yet.

Carving “5” represents an offering table includes chicken and pomegranate.

The carving “5” above shows the addition of the chicken and the pomegranate to the traditional pile of gods food. It is remarkable that ancient Egyptian gods had favoured more of wine and food and less of intangible offerings. However intangible offerings were rare, we still to observe few scenes of flowers presented to feminine deities such as for Hathor who represented love and fertility in ancient Egypt.

A slab”6” represents king Akhenaton , Nefertiti and their daughter while presenting flowers for Aton.

Akhenaton the unique monotheist pharaoh who called for Aton to be the only god did not allow food or sacrifices for his god. In fact the oneness and infinity of Aton had no paradox with being him to be a simple god and would tolerate the intangibles. By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved.