by Michael Fassbender

Created on: August 06, 2011   Last Updated: August 09, 2011

The art of mummification is one of the great achievements of ancient Egyptian civilization.  There was not a single, unchanging system; over the course of some three thousand years of history, the process of mummification was gradually refined, with occasional setbacks as well.  Moreover, different grades of mummification were offered,with the more perfect techniques being available for those who could afford them.  The ideal process of mummification might be considered the process employed for elite burials from the New Kingdom through the Roman period.

As in nearly all other aspects of Egyptian society, it is impossible to separate ritual from the practical aspects of mummification.  Officially, mummification took seventy days, with perhaps forty days being strictly necessary for the physical preservation the body.  Supernatural purifications and protections of the body were considered essential to the satisfactory creation of the mummy.  On another level, the seventy days seem to have had the character of an official mourning period, with physical preparations beginning just a few days after death and burial being performed only at the end of this period.

When the body was taken from the family for mummification, it was first taken to a tent known as the “ibu” for purification.  This tent was erected near the burial place with good access to water.  It is likely that a small quantity of natron was dissolved into the water used in purification.  Natron is a desiccant that appears naturally in several places in Egypt, containing sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and typically some measure of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate.  Ritually, natron was considered an agent of purification.

The body was then taken to another tent or temporary building known as the “wabet.”  Here the organs that decayed the quickest were removed.  A hook was inserted through the nose, breaking through the thin layer of bone behind it, and then fragments of brain were removed systematically, if not always completely.  No effort of any kind to preserve the brain matter has ever been found, and it is believed that the brain was simply thrown away.  It is worth observing that the functions now known to reside in the brain were ascribed by the Egyptians to the heart, and there, every effort was made to preserve the heart in its natural place.  

For the removal of the internal organs, the

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