Ancient Egypt Assignment: How to make Cornell Notes
In this assignment you will be taking Cornell Notes on the main ideas of each reading. Cornell Notes use some of the same techniques as a RAT (Read Around The Text). Here’s how it is done.
1. Write Down the Title of the reading in the left-hand margin of your lined paper like this: The Gift of the Nile
2. Read the 1st and last sentence of each paragraph and summarize each paragraph in a sentence on the right-hand side like this. There are quite a few readings, so be patient and good luck!
The Gift of the Nile
The ancient Egyptians enjoyed many natural barriers. There were deserts to the east
and west of the Nile River, and mountains to the south. This isolated the ancient
Egyptians and allowed them to develop a truly distinctive culture.
The Nile is the world's longest river. It is over 4000 miles long! It is shaped like the
lotus flower so often seen in ancient Egyptian art. Each spring, water would run off
the mountains and the Nile would flood. As the flood waters receded, black rich fertile
soil was left behind. The ancient Egyptian called this rich soil The Gift of the Nile.
Fertile soil for crops was not the Nile's only gift. The Nile gave the ancient Egyptians
many gifts. Thanks to the Nile, these ancient people had fresh water for drinking and
bathing. The Nile supported transportation and trade. It provided materials for
building, for making cloth for clothes, and even for making paper - made from the
wild papyrus weed, that grew along the shores of the Nile.
Because of the annual flooding of the Nile, the ancient Egyptians enjoyed a high
standard of living compared to other ancient civilizations. Without the Nile, Egypt
would be a desert.
The Two Lands, Unification, King Menes
The early people who settled along the Nile River banded together into two main
groups.
One group lived around the mouth of Nile River, near the Mediterranean Sea. Their
king wore a Red Crown. Their land was called Lower Egypt.
The other group lived near the mountains to the South. Their king wore a White
Crown. Their land was called Upper Egypt.
These two groups had much in common. They spoke the same language. They
worshipped the same gods. They had the same culture. But, they did not get along.
They were always fighting.
Around 3000 BCE, King Menes (also known as King Namer) ruled Upper Egypt. He
conquered Lower Egypt. These two groups continued to fight. One day, King Menes
had an idea. If the color of a crown was so important, why not invent a new crown?!
King Menes created the Double Crown, a mix of white and red.
His idea worked. Both Lower and Upper Egypt respected the Double Crown. They
called their land "The Two Lands".
The Three Kingdoms
Egypt's ancient history covers a
huge block of time. Archaeologists
noticed something very interesting.
They realized that much Egypt's
ancient history could be divided
into three big blocks of time. In
each block, all of the pharaohs
behaved in a certain way.
Scientists have named these blocks
"The Old Kingdom", "The Middle
Kingdom", and "The New
Kingdom".
The Old Kingdom (2700
BCE-2200 BCE):
Pharaohs had
absolute power and were
considered gods on earth. But that's
not why this kingdom is nicknamed
"The Pyramid Age". Pharaohs
were buried in pyramids
only
during this time period in history.
After building a few pyramids, at
great expense to the state, it
occurred to pharaohs that pyramids
were rather easy to spot, and thus,
much easier to rob than a hidden
tomb. Things changed during the
middle kingdom.
The Middle Kingdom (2100
BCE-1800 BCE):
The middle
kingdom was Egypt's Golden Age.
Trade flourished, arts and literature
flourished. Egypt built strong
armies to defend herself against her
neighbors. During the time period
of the middle kingdom, pharaohs
were expected to be good kings and
wise rulers.
Instead of building huge expensive
pyramids, when pharaohs died,
they were buried in hidden tombs.
These tombs were all over ancient
Egypt. Most probably, there are
tombs yet to be discovered by
modern archaeologists because
they were hidden so well.
The New Kingdom (1500 BCE-1000 BCE):
The
new kingdom was Egypt's expansion period. Egypt
expanded her borders through military conquest and
became a world power.
During the time period of the new kingdom, pharaohs
were all powerful, and pharaohs were all buried in the
same geographic area called the Valley of the Kings.
Hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone
Over 5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians wrote things down using a picture writing called hieroglyphics. The people who did the actual writing were called scribes.
The scribes had a problem. The ancient Egyptians wrote everything down, absolutely everything! Although hieroglyphics were very pretty, it took time to write in pictures.
Scribes needed a faster way to write things down. They created a new form of writing called Demotic script. The new scribes did not study the old language of hieroglyphics. They could write much more rapidly with some of the new scripts they created.
Hundreds of years later, archaeologists discovered beautiful hieroglyphic writing on the walls of ancient Egyptian pyramids and tombs. The archaeologists had a problem. They knew hieroglyphics had
meanings. Although lots of archaeologists could read Demotic script, there was no one left in the world who remembered what the ancient hieroglyphics meant.
It was most frustrating!
It was not until quite recently, a mere 200 years ago, that a stone was found in Egypt. This stone had the same short story written on it in Greek, in Demotic, and in hieroglyphics. Scientists could read Greek. Scientists could read Demotic. And now, scientists could begin to read hieroglyphics. They named this famous stone the Rosetta Stone.
Today, the Rosetta Stone is on display for everyone to see. Currently, it makes its home in the famous British Museum in London.
Obelisks
The ancient Egyptians believed if you did not have your name written down somewhere, that after your death, you would disappear. Everyone made sure their name was written somewhere, including inside their tombs and graves.
The pharaohs ordered monuments built so they would be remembered. These monuments provided places to write their name down in a very public way. Some monuments were temples. Others were obelisks.
Obelisks were made of stone, and often built in pairs. Each obelisk was at least 70 feet tall and most were taller. Each was decorated with writing telling of the great achievements of the person each obelisk honored.
The Sphinx
What is the Great Sphinx?
The Great Sphinx is a large human-headed lion that was carved from a mound of
natural rock. It is located in Giza where it guards the front of Khafra's pyramid.
Legends have been told for many years about the Great Sphinx. These stories tell
about the powers and mysteries of this sphinx. Some people even believe that there are
hidden passageways or rooms underneath the Great Sphinx, but nothing has been
found yet.
The beginning of one story about the Great Sphinx is written on a
stele
between the
sphinx's paws.
The story reads that one day, a young prince fell asleep next to the Great Sphinx. He
had been hunting all day, and was very tired. He dreamt that the Great Sphinx promised
that he would become the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt if he cleared away the sand
covering its body (the Great Sphinx was covered up to its neck).
The rest of the story is gone, so you will have to use your imagination to work out the
ending. This stele was put up by the pharaoh Thutmosis IV who lived around 1400 B.C.
This is part of the beard of the Great Sphinx. The beard was added during the
New
The Pharoahs
Who were the Pharaohs?
Pharaohs were the king or Queen of Egypt. Most pharaohs were men but some well-known pharaohs, such as Nefertiti and Cleopatra, were women. A Pharaoh was the most important and powerful person in the kingdom. He was the head of the government and high priest of every temple. The people of Egypt considered the pharaoh to be a half-man, half-god.
The Pharaoh owned all of Egypt.
Interesting fact: The ancient Egyptians did not refer to their Kings as Pharaohs. The word Pharaoh comes from the Greek language and was used by the Greeks and Hebrews to refer to the Kings of Egypt. Today, we also use the word Paraoh when referring to the kings of Egypt.
Who was the first king/pharaoh of Egypt?
The first true pharaoh of Egypt was Narmer (sometimes called Menes), who united Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt. He was the first king of the First Dynasty, the beginning of the Old Kingdom. Egypt was once divided into two kingdoms. The kingdom in Lower Egypt was called the red crown and the one in Upper Egypt was known as the white crown. Around 3100 B.C. the pharaoh of the north conquered the south and Egypt became united. The pharaoh's name was King Narmer (Menes). He founded the first capital of Egypt where the two lands met. It was called Memphis. (Thebes became the next capital of Egypt and then Amarna was made the capital during the reign of King Akhenaten.) The story of Ancient Egypt begins from when the north and the south were united as one country under the first pharaoh Menes.
Which God did the people think their Pharaoh was?
The Ancient Egyptians believed that their Pharaoh was the god Horus, son of Re, the sun god. When a pharaoh died he was believed to be united with the sun and then a new Horus ruled on earth. Where were Pharaohs buried?
In the Old and Middle Kingdoms (2628-1638 BC), Egyptian kings were buried in pyramids. About 50 royal pyramids have survived. They were built on the desert edge, west of the ancient capital of Memphis. In the New Kingdom (1504-1069 BC), Egyptian kings were buried in tombs in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. These tombs were tunnels cut deep into the natural rock.
Government Officials
Several million people lived in ancient Egypt. But they didn't own anything - not their house, not their jewelry or pets or crops or anything. The only person who owned in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh. The pharaoh owned everything. The pharaoh was in charge of everything.
To help him do a good job, the pharaoh had helpers - lots and lots of helpers. Some helpers were members of the royal family. Others were people who had worked their way up the government ladder. Each pharaoh had an organized army, a police force, and a huge number of ministers and government officials to assist him.
The ancient Egyptians loved titles. So it's not surprising that government officials gave themselves all kinds of titles, some quite elaborate.
But in ancient Egypt, the only title that really mattered besides the title of Pharaoh was that of Vizier. The Vizier was Pharaoh's right hand man.
Everyone reported to the official above them. The very top officials reported to the Vizier. The Vizier reported to the Pharaoh every day on what was happening all over Egypt.
The Vizier was also the judge of the high court. If you had a problem and it was not solved in the local courts, or in the provincial courts, you could bring your problem in front of the Vizier on a first come, first served basis. It was dangerous. The Vizier's decision was final. You could end up in more trouble than you started with. But the Vizier tried to be fair. He had to explain aloud the reason for his decision in each case so that everyone who came to court that day could hear those reasons.
Math
The Egyptians invented a decimal system. They used 7 different symbols. 1 was represented by a single stroke.
10 was shown by drawing one hobble.
100 was shown with a drawing one coil of rope.
1,000 was represented by a drawing of one lotus plant. 10,000 was shown as one finger.
100,000 was represented by a drawing of one frog. (A hieroglyphic of six frogs in a row would mean 600,000)
1,000,000 was represented by the figure of a god with raised arms
Cartouche
A cartouche was an oval circle with a name written in it, rather like a nameplate.
In the early days of ancient Egypt, a cartouche was attached to the coffins of kings and queens. As time went on, many people hired an artist to create a cartouche for their own coffins.
The ancient Egyptians believed that you had to have your name written down somewhere, so that you would not disappear when you died. By attaching a cartouche to their coffin, people made sure their name was written down in one place at least!
Schools in Egypt
Temples were the heart of the community.
Kids went to school at the temple.
The women came every day with temple offerings of food and goods they had made.
They stayed to chat and to market.
The temples acted as hotels for important visitors from other towns.
Grain was stored in the temples so that it could be shared with whomever needed it.
People prayed to the temple gods for whatever they needed. If their request was not
granted, they might give the temple statue a whack with a sturdy reed to let the temple
god know how they felt about it. For the most part, the ancient Egyptians were not
afraid of their gods at all.
Professions
Important jobs in ancient Egypt included soldiers, scribes, artists, and peasants. Most jobs were
inherited. If your father was a farmer, so were you. But there were some exceptions to the
inherited job tradition.
Anyone, for example, could become an artist if they had exceptional talent. But most artists
inherited their job from their father.
Another exception was a scribe. Anyone could learn to be a scribe if they had the talent.
Learning to be a script was a complicated process. Scribes went to scribe school. Most who
attended did not pass the course.
Those who passed the course were in high demand. In ancient Egypt, everything was written
down. The ancient Egyptians loved lists - lists of goods in the storehouse to lists of flowers in the
garden.
Weighing of the Heart
People in most ancient civilizations were afraid of their gods. This was not true in ancient Egypt.
The Egyptians loved their gods. They had little fear and great wonder.
There was one exception - the god Ammut. Almost everyone in ancient Egypt was afraid of
Ammut! Ammut was the Devourer. The ancient Egyptians believed if you did something bad,
your heart would be heavy, and the god Ammut could suddenly appear and gobble you up!
The god Ammut had a big part in the weighing of the heart ceremony. When you died, the
ancient Egyptians believed you traveled to an afterlife, a heavenly place where you spent
eternity. You had to earn your way. There were rules. To enter your afterlife, you had to have a
light heart. Light hearts were earned from a lifetime of doing good deeds.
To find out if your heart qualified for the trip to the afterlife, your spirit had to enter the Hall of
Maat. The god Anubis weighed your heart. The god Thoth recorded the findings. (In ancient
Egypt, everything was recorded and written down.)
If your heart was light, lighter than a feather, you passed the test and entered your afterlife.
BUT, if your heart was heavy because your deeds were dreadful, the god Ammut would
suddenly appear ... and eat you up!
The Mummy's Curse
Was there a curse on King Tutankhamen's tomb?
When the tomb was first discovered, there were reports of a message written in ancient
hieroglyphics on the outside of the tomb. Translated, the message said, "Death Shall Come on
Swift Wings to Him Who Disturbs the Peace of the King." This gave rise to great speculation in
the newspapers and magazines of the time that there was a curse on King Tut's tomb.
A few months after the tomb was open, a British Lord began ill from a mosquito bite. He was
there when they opened the tomb. A few months later, he died. Rumor said a mark similar to the
mosquito bit was found in the exact same position on King Tut's cheek. You can imagine the
media frenzy!
The ancient Egyptians believed that if their mummy was stolen or destroyed, their spirit would
not be able to return to their mummified body at night, and they would disappear forever, no
longer able to dwell in their Afterlife. Adding a curse or two to scare robbers into leaving their
mummy alone was probably a common practice.
Howard Carter, the man who discovered King Tut's tomb, lived to be 65. He died of natural
causes. He never believed in a curse.
But how to explain the deaths? Illness and death have been linked to the opening of ancient
tombs. Archaeologists have discovered that there are poisonous plant molds in the tombs in
many ancient tombs.
Today, archaeologists wear masks when exploring tombs, to protect themselves from these
dangerous plant molds.
The Afterlife
The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. The afterlife was a heavenly place, complete with
a heavenly Nile River. The ancient Egyptians called this heavenly place the land of the Two
Fields.
In the beginning, only pharaohs could board Ra's magical boat and travel to the land of the Two
Fields, to dwell forever in the afterlife. But the god Osiris changed that. One of the reasons that
Osiris was such a famous and important god in ancient Egypt is that Osiris opened the door to
the afterlife to everyone.
Just dying would not get to you the land of the Two Fields. You had to earn a place in Ra's boat.
To board Ra's boat, your heart had to be light.
To keep your heart light, the ancient Egyptians believed you had to spend a lifetime doing good
deeds.
Crime was very low in ancient Egypt because someday, after a good life spent by the Nile,
everyone wanted to board Ra's boat and travel to the land of the Two Fields to enjoy their
afterlife.
There were a couple of other requirements you had to satisfy before you could spend eternity in
the afterlife. First, you had to pass the test of heart in the Hall of Maat. That got you onboard
Ra's boat. But you also had to have your name written down somewhere. And you had to have a
preserved body.
Why? Because the ancient Egyptians believed that everyone had a soul. They called the soul by
two names - the Ba and the Ka. As the story goes, the Ba returned during the day to watch over
the living family, while the Ka flew off to enjoy life in the land of the Two Fields. At night, both
the Ba and the Ka flew home to their tomb, to rest and prepare for the next heavenly day.
If something happened to your preserved body, or if your name was not written down
somewhere, the Ba and Ka would get lost and you would disappear, no longer able to reach your
afterlife.
That's why grave robbing was the most horrible crime in ancient Egypt. Grave robbers not only
stole someone's wealth, they stole their chance to live happily ever after in the land of the Two
Fields.
Women
In ancient Egypt, women were not equal with men, but they had many rights, considerably more
rights than did women in other ancient civilizations.
Marriage: One of their rights was the right to decide if they wished to marry or not. If a man
asked a woman to marry him, she could say no. A woman in ancient Egypt could not be forced
into marriage. Those who did marry usually married quite young, around age 12-14.
Once married, a woman's first duty was to be a good wife and mother. Children were very
important to the ancient Egyptians.
Finances: Along with raising the children and running the household, women were free to get a
paid job outside the home if they wanted one. They could run a business. They could own, buy,
and sell property. They could make a will and leave their personal goods to whomever they
chose, including their daughters.
Court: If any woman broke the law, she had go to court and defend herself from the charge, just
like everyone else.
Divorce: One of the biggest rights a woman had was the right of divorce. If a woman was
unhappy with her marriage, she could get a divorce, and then remarry someone else or remain
single.
To be granted a divorce, a woman needed to present a good reason in a court of law.
If her divorce was granted, she gained custody of the children, plus all of her original dowry if
one was brought to the marriage - or its equivalent worth - plus one-third of her husband's
wealth. This was done so that she could raise her children comfortably. She also took with her
any property she personally owned, including property that had been willed to her during her
marriage.
Men could also get a divorce, but, if granted, women still gained custody of her children, her
original dowry, and a big chunk of his wealth.
Pyramids & Tombs
It was only during the time of the Old Kingdom that the ancient Egyptians built pyramids to hold the royal tombs of their kings. Pyramids were huge structures. Pyramids had storage rooms, courtyards, secret passageways, and all kinds of fancy traps designed to catch robbers who tried to break into the pyramid to rob it.
Pyramids were full of treasures. The average person created grave goods to take with them to their afterlife. Imagine the treasures a pharaoh might feel were necessary to bring along!
The first pyramid, the Step Pyramid, was built around 2700 BCE, nearly 5000 years ago! Pyramid construction was abandoned after the time of the Old Kingdom. It was simply too easy to find a
pyramid. Grave robbers knew exactly where the pharaohs were buried, and thus knew exactly where to find riches and wealth. If you were caught, the penalty for grave robbing was death.
The ancient Egyptians did not simply build a pyramid, bury a pharaoh, and walk away. A whole city grew up around a pyramid during its construction. These cities were called pyramid cities.
The pharaoh provided homes for everyone who worked on the pyramid construction. People were paid for their work in goods and food and homes.
After a pyramid was finished, the pyramid city continued to exist. Some of the people who stayed had jobs maintaining and guarding the pyramid. Others, like bakers and basket weavers, were merchants who created needed goods.
Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead is not a book. It's a nickname for a bunch of different magical spells written down in various ways by the ancient Egyptians.
Nearly all of the magical spells that have been discovered to date were written to help the ancient Egyptian safely reach their afterlife. Egyptologists have found about 200 different spells so far, most written on piece of papyrus, some written on tomb walls.
Everyone in ancient Egypt wanted to safely reach the afterlife. They believed the afterlife was a real place, and they believed magical spells would help them get there.
Wealthy Egyptians hired scribes to write down all their personal favorite spells on papyrus sheets. Once prepared, this collection of spells was packed carefully away with their other grave goods, to be placed in their tomb someday.
If you did not have a lot of money, you could buy a ready-made version that included several of the most popular spells. A space was left on the sheet of papyrus for your name. That way, you not only had several spells on hand to use, but you also had your name written down, which helped your Ba and your Ka - the two pieces of your soul - find their way home each night to your tomb.
1. Mummies
A mummy is simply a human being whose soft tissue has been preserved long after death. Ordinarily, when a person dies, the decomposition process reduces the body to a bare skeleton in a matter of months. The rate of decomposition is dependent on a number of factors, chiefly the nature of the surrounding environment.
In most environments, the first stages of decomposition begin within a few hours. In this initial stage, called autolysis, organs that contain digestive enzymes (the intestines, for example) begin to digest themselves.
Autolysis is followed by putrefaction, the breakdown of organic matter by bacteria. In normal,
temperate circumstances, putrefaction gets going about three days after death. Within a few months, the body is reduced to a skeleton. In hotter, more humid environments, this process is accelerated, because bacteria reproduce rapidly in such conditions. In colder, drier conditions, the process is slowed, because bacteria need heat and water to thrive (this is why we use refrigerators to preserve food). If the conditions are cold or dry enough, or if there isn't enough oxygen, the environment is so harsh that few bacteria can survive. In this case, the body will not fully decompose, possibly for thousands of years. There are many circumstances that can lead to such a mummy. In nature, bodies have been preserved in the frozen ice of glaciers, the oxygen-depleted depths of peat bogs and the arid ground of the desert. The "Iceman" discovered in 1991 by tourists in the Italian Alps is one of the most amazing natural mummies. The 5,300-year-old corpse, found with perfectly preserved tools, died in a rocky hollow that quickly filled up with snow. Essentially, this created a natural freezer that preserved the body's tissues. This mummy has provided historians with a great deal of information about Europe's Copper Age, including representative technology, human health and tattooing practices.
In some cases, natural mummies have significantly altered our conception of history. Mummies found in China's Taklimakan Desert have provided several clues to the lineage of modern natives of this region. The structure of the mummies' faces shows they were of Indo-European descent. One man, who lived around 1000 B.C., has a distinctive sunray tattoo on his temple, similar to an ancient symbol for an Indo-Iranian god. This, along with other evidence preserved with the mummies, indicates that the region was settled by Indo-European traders, centuries before the Han Chinese arrived in the area. -These
mummies were created by the hot sand surrounding them in their graves. When bodies are buried in hot sand, without any protective structure, the sand can absorb the body's fluids, completely desiccating it. This natural mummification process also occurred in the oldest Egyptian graves.
2. The Egyptians and Mummification
When a body was buried in the Egyptian desert, the internal organs were preserved and the skin was crisped to a dark, hard shell. This phenomenon had a profound effect on the ancient Egyptians: The idea that the human body could survive long past death indicated to them that the human spirit could too. The best way the ancient Egyptians knew how to preserve a body was to mummify it. The poor placed the bodies of their dead relatives out in the sun, in the desert sand. The bodies mummified naturally. Anyone who could afford it went to a professional mummy maker. People wanted to look their best in their afterlife.
As their concept of the afterlife evolved, the Egyptians became concerned about the comfort of their departed family members. They began covering the bodies with long wicker baskets and later with sturdy wooden boxes. Eventually, this led to fully enclosed coffins and tomblike housings -Of course, with the body fully enclosed, it was not exposed to the drying properties of the sand. The fluids
remained in the body; the bacteria thrived, and the flesh naturally decomposed. This left the Egyptians with a real quandary -- they didn't want to leave their loved ones completely covered in sand, but they also didn't want the bodies reduced to skeletons. To ensure survival and comfort in the afterlife, the Egyptian scientists had to figure out a way to replicate the preservative qualities of the desert.
In the early days of mummification, the embalmers concentrated mostly on keeping the body away from the elements. They wrapped it up tightly in strips of linen soaked with resin. With careful application of these bandages, the embalmers were able to create shapely forms, giving bodies the filled-out
appearance of the living. These wrapped corpses were impressive to be sure, but in most cases the bandages did little to stop decomposition. Bacteria survived inside, and the body was eventually reduced to a skeleton.
Through experimentation, the Egyptians discovered that decomposition worked largely from the inside out. Bacteria collected first in the body's internal organs and moved on from there. To stop the
putrefaction process, the embalmers realized, they would have to remove the internal organs. This, combined with the discovery of the natural drying agent natron, led to the famous Egyptian mummies we know today.
The science and theology of embalming continued to evolve over the years, so there is no single Egyptian ritual. But the standard practices of the New Kingdom's 18th through 20th dynasties (1570 to 1075 B.C.), an era that produced some of the best preserved mummies, are fairly representative.
Egyptologists have determined that the mummification rituals were performed in the Red Land, a desert region removed from heavily populated areas, with easy access to the Nile River. Reason suggests that the embalmers may have worked in open tents, rather than solid structures, in order to allow proper ventilation.
3. The Egyptian Embalming Process
Before beginning the embalming process, the Egyptians took the body to the Ibu, the "Place of Purification." In this house, they washed the body in water gathered from the Nile. This represented a sort of rebirth, as the person passed from one world into the next. Once the body was cleaned, the embalmers carried it to the Per-Nefer, the "House of Mummification," where they began the embalming process.
At the Per-Nefer, they laid the body out on a wooden table and prepared to remove the brain. To get into the cranium, the embalmers had to hammer a chisel through the bone of the nose. Then they inserted a long, iron hook into the skull and slowly pulled out the brain matter. Once they had removed most of the brain with the hook, they used a long spoon to scoop out any remaining bits. Finally, they rinsed the skull with water. Surprisingly, the brain was one of the few organs the Egyptians did not try to preserve. They weren't sure what it was for, but they assumed you wouldn't need it in the next world. After they had removed the brain, the embalmers took a special blade made from obsidian (a sacred stone) and made a small incision along the left side of the body. They carefully removed the abdominal organs through this slit, setting each one aside (with the exception of the kidneys, which the Egyptians did not hold as important). After removing these organs, the embalmers cut open the diaphragm to remove the lungs. The Egyptians believed that the heart was the core of a person, the seat of emotion and the mind, so they almost always left it in the body. The other organs were washed, coated with resin, wrapped in linen strips and stored in decorative pottery. These vessels, which Egyptologists dubbed canopic jars, protected the organs for passage to the next world.
Once they removed the organs, the embalmers rinsed the empty chest cavity with palm wine, in order to purify it. Then, to maintain the body's lifelike form, they filled the cavity with incense and other material. This kept the skin from shrinking down inside the cavity when the body was dried out. In the next section, we'll look at this drying procedure and see how the body was finally prepared for the next world.
4. Egyptian Mummification: Drying and Wrapping
After the embalmers removed the organs and re-stuffed the body, they laid the body down on a sloped board and covered it completely with natron powder. The Egyptians collected this powder, a mixture of sodium compounds, from the shores of Egyptian lakes in the desert west of the Nile Delta. Unlike the hot sand that dried the earliest Egyptian mummies, the salty natron absorbed moisture without severely darkening and hardening the skin.
The embalmers left the body in the powder for 35 to 40 days to allow enough time for the body to dry completely. During this waiting period, somebody had to stand guard, as the body's strong odor attracted desert scavengers. After the 40 days were finished, the body was brought to the Wabet, the "House of Purification." The embalmers removed the incense and other stuffing from the body cavity and refilled it with natron, resin-soaked linen and various other materials. In some eras, to make the desiccated body more lifelike, the embalmers also stuffed material under the skin in the arms, legs and head. When the body was fully stuffed, the embalmers sewed up the incisions and covered the skin with a resin layer in order to keep moisture out. The body was then ready for the wrapping, or bandaging, procedure.
Bandaging was a very involved process, and it typically took a week or two to complete. While the deceased was drying in the desert, his or her family gathered roughly 4,000 square feet (372 sq. meters) of linen and brought it in to the embalmers. The wealthy sometimes used material that had clothed sacred statues, while the lower classes collected old clothing and other household linen. When the linen was delivered, the embalmers selected the highest-quality material and stripped it into long "bandages" measuring 3 to 8 inches across.
The embalmers then wrapped the body in a shroud and began methodically winding the bandages around the different parts of the body. Typically, they started with the hands and feet, wrapping all of the fingers and toes individually, and then moved on to the head, arms, legs and torso. Once all the parts of the body were wrapped, the embalmers began wrapping the body as a whole. As they applied new layers, the embalmers coated the linen with hot resin material to glue the bandages in place. During this entire process, the embalmers uttered spells and laid protective amulets on the body (for protection in the next world), wrapping them up at different layers.
The Egyptians may have bandaged their mummies for a number of different reasons: •First, the bandages kept moisture away from the body so it would not decompose.
•Second, the wrappings let the embalmers build up the shape of the mummy, to give it a more lifelike form.
•Third, the wrappings kept everything together. Without this binding system, the fragile, desiccated mummies would likely burst or fall apart. In order for the bandages to contain the mummy effectively, they had to be wound tightly and meticulously.
After the mummy was fully wrapped, the embalmers attached a rigid cartonnage cage to the body and affixed a funerary mask to the head. This new face, which was either a likeness of the deceased or a representation of an Egyptian god, played an important role in the passage to the afterlife. It helped the spirit of the deceased find the correct body among the many Egyptian tombs.
When the mummy was completed, it was housed in a suhet, a coffin decorated to look like a person. The suhet was brought to the tomb in a procession of mourners. At the tomb, the priest, dressed as the jackal god Anubis, performed the "ceremony of the mouth," a ritual in which sacred objects were touched to the suhet's face, giving the deceased the powers of speech, sight, touch, hearing and taste in the next world. The suhet was then leaned against the wall inside the tomb, where it was sealed up with all the food, furniture and supplies that the deceased would need in the next world.
5. Other Ancient Mummies
The ancient Egyptians are the most famous mummy-makers, but they were not the only ancient
civilization, or even the first, to preserve their dead. The Chinchorro people of northern Chile developed a mummification process around 5000 B.C., some 2,000 years before the Egyptians. These mummies, the oldest in the world, are nothing like the famous Egyptian figures. The Chinchorros dismembered and disemboweled the body completely, then attached the pieces back together using straw, plant fibers and stick. They then covered this frame with black mud, which they sculpted into a human form with a face and other ornamentation.
The resulting mummies are a strange hybrid of a corpse and a statue. It's unclear what the motivation behind this practice was, but many researchers believe it did not have to do with any concept of an afterlife. The mummies show signs of wear, and even repainting, indicating they were kept in households as statues for some time before being buried. This practice indicates that the mummies were created more for the sake of the deceased's family and friends, rather than for the good of the deceased. The Chinchorro people probably kept the mummies around as a way to honor and remember the dead, to help them mourn the loss.
Some later South American cultures also produced mummies, both by artificial and natural means. In the mountains of Peru, scientists have uncovered many Incan bodies preserved by the dry atmosphere and extremely cold temperatures. Even though the mummifying agent is completely natural, these mummies are, in a sense, man-made -- they were deliberately brought to the remote location with the understanding that the bodies would be preserved there. The Incans sacrificed children and took the bodies to these high points as an offering to their gods.
Some of the most amazing mummies have been found in China. Lady Cheng, a Chinese aristocrat who lived over 2,000 years ago, is the best-preserved ancient mummy in the world. She was laid to rest immersed in a special embalming fluid that kept her tissue relatively soft. Her body and some of her possessions were protected by a series of nested coffins housed in an airtight tomb. Chinese scientists have not studied her in detail, so they still don't know exactly how she was preserved. The embalming fluids seem to have a mercury component to them, which may have been one of the keys to her preservation.
When we think of mummies, we typically imagine bodies preserved from ancient times. But as we'll see in the next section, the practice of mummification continues today. Some of the most amazing
6. Modern Mummies
-In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a surge of interest in the mummies of ancient Egypt. "Unravelings" were a popular form of entertainment, and people- from all classes were fascinated by the beliefs and practices of the Egyptian age. One effect of this phenomenon was that some people began revisiting the idea of mummification -- with the addition of some new technology.
The most famous modern mummies are Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Russian revolutionist, and Eva Peron, the revered wife of Argentinean president Juan Peron. Lenin died in 1924, soon after the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb, which influenced the decision to preserve Lenin's body and display it at the Kremlin. The exact chemicals and procedure that keep his body perfectly preserved are a Russian secret, but we do know that the mummification is an ongoing process. The Russians periodically immerse him in a preservative bath and then dress him in a waterproof suit to hold the fluids inside.
Like Lenin, Eva Peron's body was so perfectly preserved that she appears to be alive. This was accomplished with a revolutionary embalming treatment that essentially replaced all the fluid in her body with wax. Peron and similar mummies are really a lot like the wax dummies you see in a wax museum, except, of course, that they are the actual remains of a person.
In the 1970s, a group of scientists expanded on this idea to create a process called plastination. In the complicated plastination process, all of the water and lipids in the body's cells are replaced with polymers. The body takes on the properties of plastic: It is durable, flexible, doesn't have a strong odor and, most importantly, doesn't decompose. Plastination is used to preserve body parts for anatomical research and education, but it is also used artistically. In a controversial exhibit that traveled through Europe and Asia, stripped-down, plastinated human bodies were sculpted into wild shapes and positioned in active poses. The exhibit showed all of the inner workings of the human body, in both healthy and diseased bodies.
Dr. Bob Brier, a renowned Egyptologist, used a very different approach with his modern mummy. Instead of advancing the mummification process with new technology, Dr. Brier endeavored to replicate the Egyptian technique exactly. In 1994, he pulled off this feat at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, with fascinating results. Among other things, his experiment demonstrated that it was the Egyptian mummification process itself, not the thousands of years sealed up in a coffin, that gave Egyptian mummies their distinctive withered appearance.
In the future, mummification technology will surely continue to evolve. It's a good bet that a lot of this development will be in technologies designed to preserve dead bodies so they may someday be brought back to life (cryogenics, for example). Like the ancient Egyptians, many people today are shelling out a fortune for these services, in the hopes that science may someday be able to reverse whatever killed them. Remarkably, in the thousands of years since the time of the Egyptians, people are still drawn to mummification as a means of insuring immortality.
